Boerick Compendium of Materia Medica

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A

COMPEND OF THE

Principles of Homoeopattiy AS TAUGHT BY HAHNEMANN,

AND VKRIFIED BY A CENTURY OF CLINICAL APPLICATION,

WIVL.

BOKRICKK, M.

Professor of Materia Medica aud Therapeutics, at the

D.

Hahnemann

Hospital

College of San Francisco; Associate Author of the Twelve Tissue

Remedies

of Sehuessler; Stepping Stone to

Member of American

Institute of

Homoeopathy;

Homoeopathy,

Etc., Etc.

SAN FRANCISCO:

B0ERICK:E & RUNYON 1896.

COPYRIGHTED

1896,

BY

BOERICKK & RUNYON

Jos.

WrNTRKBUKN

CO.,

Printers and Ei.ectrotypers,

San Francisco.

PREFACE. Hahnemann's Organon ceptions

and

is

the great text-book of the

It contains philosophical con-

homoeopathic school.

practical directions for the establishment

of a true science of therapeutics,

gress towards this goal

in that work.

To

is

all

genuine pro-

fix its principles clearly in

of the student, to faithfully

the special duty

and

in the direction pointed out

and high

the

mind

apply them in practice, privilege of

is

Homoeopathy.

The more this is done, the^more will this masterly book become a veritable mountain of therapeutic light to the practitioner.

Hahnemann's

teachings, and the therapeutic edifice by the homoeopathic school, are based upon two distinct factors. On the one hand, upon facts of observation and experiment obtained by strict adherence to the inductive methods of research, facts that can thus be verified at all times; and, on the other hand, upon new ideas resulting from the exercise of erected

deductive reasoning, ideas

belonging possibly to

a

and higher realm, and to some extent beyond the acceptance of modern scientific thought, but nevertheless capable of great power in achieving curative larger

results.

Until quite recently, the tendency of modern homoe-

opathy was to bend

energies perhaps too exclusively

its

upon the acquisition

immediate some extent the study of

of the facts yielding

results, while neglecting to

Preface.

iv

the underlying principles. of

With

neglect of the study

homoeopathic institutes came coquetry with old-

school methods, palliative

and the alluring adoption

of modern and mechanical therapeutics, leading un-

questionably to deterioration of our distinctive practice.

of

The reaction had

A

it.

and study the Organon book fuller

is

to

come.

We

homoeopathic renaissance is

its

is

are in the midst

upon

watchword.

Teach

us.

This

little

intended to be an introduction and an aid to a

study and wider acceptance of Hahnemann's

doctrines.

It does not

pretend to be more than an

attempt to elucidate the salient and vital points often abstrusely and always metaphorically treated by

Hah-

nemann, and thus to familiarize the student with the fundamental groundwork of our school. These essential doctrines

of every

do not include the necessary acceptance

statement of

solute importance.

necessary, for the

Hahnemann

as of equal

and ab-

Indeed, a wise discrimination

is

minor things may be instructive or

obstructive, or even destructive, according to the

way

they are held; they may, therefore, be useful or otherwise for the mental development of the physician or the scientific evolution of the school.

The author has gladly availed himself

of everything

published that furthered the end in view, and he hopes little volume will be used by the student and young practitioner as a first stepping-stone to the rich mine of deep philosophy and practical suggestion contained in the writings of Samuel Hahnemann.

that the

WM. BOERICKE, San Francisco, September, 1896.

M. D.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER

I.

THK THERAPEUTIC

:

cine; Palliative medicine; Curative inal therapeutics

Pages.

FIEI.D.

Three methods of combating disease Empiricism

Preventive medi-

medicine

Medic-

Practice according

some pathological theory: i. Allopathy. pathy, or Eantiopathy. 3. Organo-Therapy to

Anti-

2.

Objec-

Practice based upon promulgation of this prinThe development of the homoeopathic princi-

tions to Antipathetic treatment

the

Law

ciple

The

first

Homoeopathy, the science of therapeutics

ple

The

of Cure

Homoeopathy Isopathic modern form of serum-therapy 1-13

great central truths of

medication and

its

CHAPTER

II.

PRINCIPIvES OF PHARMACOI.OGY.

Materia Medica

Drugs and drug-action Medicinal a distinct property of drugs Doctrine of Signatures Other methods of determining the medicinal virtues of drugs Experimental Pharmacology Physiological action of drugs The homoeopathic force

is

method by means of drug experimentation on the healthy— drug-proving Drug Pathogenesy The value of Toxicology as illustrating drug action ferent applications of drug action

CHAPTER

Dif-

14-22

III.

THE HOMCEOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA. The

first book on drug effects Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura Publication of the "Chronic Diseases," Sources of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica The comparative value of the three sources of symptoms.

The Hahnemannian Schema The repertory or index of symptoms How to learn drug pathogenesy 23-30

vi

Contents.

CHAPTER

IV.

D R U G-P ROVING.

The proving ing

of medicines

Pages.

General rules

for

drug-prov-

Dosage required for Female provers Repetition of doses Age and sex Temperament Re-provings Hering's rules lor provers How to describe symptoms obtained from a proving The three essential features of every complete symptom Primary and secondary drug effects Hahnemann's method of conducting Directions for provers

proving

provings

31-37

CHAPTER

V.

INTERPRKTATION OF DRUG PATHOGENESIS. Of general symptoms Of peculiar or characteristic symptoms Of certain elective affinities to special organs or functions

Locality, or seat, of action

tions, or kind, of action

vSensa-

Modalities and concomi-

Boeninghausen's method of interpreting symptomatology 38-44 tants

CHAPTER

VI.

DRUG RKI.ATIONSHIP. Family

relation, or collateral,

side relation

Antidotal

Concordant, or compatible, relationship Inimical relation Complementary relation

relation

CHAPTER THE

45-48

VII.

APPIylCATlON OF HOMCEOPATHY.

The selection of the The examination of the patient remedy The administration of the single remedy. The totality of the sympThe dose and its repetition toms ive

Special precautions to be observed

symptoms

The

collective totality of epidemic diseases

of the totality

toms toms

Characteristic,

Mental symptoms Etiological factors

Functional symptoms

Object-

totality in acute diseases

The

Interpretation

sympsympLate symptoms or

peculiar,

First, or oldest,

Need of pathology

General,

Contents.

vii

Pages.

or absolute,

symptoms

Method of

ological similarity

Path-

Totality of equality

treating slight ail-

Absence of characteristic symptoms

ments

in

Partial, or one-sided, diseases

totality

CHAPTER

the .....49-62

VIII.

THE SIMir^IMUM. The

The

indicated remedy tion, or rotation,

single

remedy

Alterna-

of remedies

63-65

CHAPTER

IX.

THE SECOND PRESCRIPTION. Rules governing the second prescription tionary rules of

Hahnemann

Three precau-

Diet and regimen dur-

Regimen

ing homoeopathic treatment

in acute dis-

66-72

eases

CHAPTER HAHNEMANN'S

X.

NOSOI^OGY.

Chronic diseases Drug diseases The evolution of Hannemann's doctrine of chronic

Acute diseases

Cause of recurrence of chronic diseases The underlying diseases facts of the Psoric theory Anti-psoric remedies Hahnemann's suggestions in regard to administering anti-psoric remedies Other miasms recognized by diseases

The skin phase of chronic

Hahnemann

Sycosis

anti-psoric treatment

Eradicative possibilities of Pre-natal treatment by

means

of anti-psoric remedies Suggestions for the treatment of chronic diseases Partial diseases and local affections Objections to local application of a medicine simultaneously with its internal use The local application of non-homoeopathic remedies The local dis-

ease

is

mental

nature's efforts to relieve by derivation state

and temperament of the patient

diseases and their treatment Acute insanity mittent and alternating diseases

The Mental Inter-

73-89

Contents.

\iii

CHAPTER

XI.

POSOI.OGY.

Pages.

and small doses Reasons for the difference in dosage between drugs chosen homoeopathically and anti-pathically Reason why the

Different effects between large

honiceopathic dose

is

necessarily smaller

Aggrava-

tion follows sometimes even a

minute homoeopathic dose. Historical development of the homcEpathic dose

Repetition of doses The theory of Dynamization. Hahnemann's reasons why the skeptic ridicules these

homoeopathic attenuations

CHAPTER

90-98

XII.

THE PREPARATION OF HOMCEOPATHIC MEDICINES. Pharmacopoeia Essential conditions for preparing homoepathic medicines The menstrua used in homoeopathic Distilled pharmacy Sugar of milk Alcohol Preparawater The unit of medicinal strength Tinctures tions of drugs Aqueous solutions Dilutions or liquid attenuations Centesimal and Decimal scale Triturations To convert tritura'

tions into liquid potencies

Pellets,

disks,

cones,

99-108

tablets, etc

CHAPTER

XIII.

Hahnemann's Philosophy

109-116

APPENDIX.

A

Catechism on Samuel Hahnemann's "Organon," and "Chronic Diseases," by the late Professor Samuel Lilienthal

117-152

A COMPEND OF THE

PRINCIPLES OF HOMCEOPATHY. CHAPTER

I.

THE THERAPEUTIC The aim

of the art of

medicine

FIELD.

is to

cure disease, and

the physician's highest ideal of a cure, as

Organon

Hahnemann

and permanent restoration of health, or the removal and annihilation of disease in its whole extent, in the shortest, most reliable and most harmless manner, and on easily com-

says,

§ 2, is the rapid, gentle

prehensible principles, that

with the least possible

is,

expenditure of time, money, vitality and suffering. In pursuance of this object, the physician presses into his service all agencies is

which tend to health.

This

the part of

Therapeutics [therapeuein, to attend upon]. cludes all that relates to the science

includes all agents, medicines aid this purpose.

It

and

It in-

art of healing,

among them, which may

embraces

dietetics, climate, cloth-

ing, bathing, nursing, application of heat, cold, electricity

and

means used by the physician for when that is possible, or in palliating

all other

restoring health,

violent conditions or incurable diseases, or in prevent-

ing their development.

Hence there are

Three methods of combating disease, of which is bound to avail himself. They are:

every physician

A

2

COMPEND OF THE

Preventive medicine.

1. 2.

Palliative medicine.

3.

Curative medicine.

These cover the whole

therapeutic

field of possible

activity.* .

Medicine includes the application

Preventive

of

everything that physiology, hygiene, sanitary science, etc.,

can teach to lessen the development

of

disease

according to the teaching in § 4 of the Organon. '' The physician is at the same time a preserver of health,

when he knows

the causes that disturb health,

that produce and maintain disease, and

how

to

when he knows

remove them from healthy persons."

It includes

much

knowledge, antihave made enormous

of bacteriological

septic medication, subjects that strides in recent years.

It includes

as well the judi-

cious use of homoeopathic remedies in preventing or

modifying the development

of

epidemic and hereditary

diseases.

Palliative

Medicine.

Palliative

medicines are of

two kinds: (1)

The use

of

drugs in their physiological dosage

Opium and Morcommon method of the

for their direct effects, as the use of

phine for pain.

This

is

the

old school. (2)

By

the carefully selected Homoeopathic remedy

given in minute dosage.

This frequently yields bril-

liant results in palliating

where a cure

This latter method

is

is

impossible.

to be tried in every case before

drug palliation- is used. This

is

almost the sole resource

and consequently much abused, but

of the old school,

in the

hands

of the

*This was aptly and perfectly expressed by Dr. Bering to the author in the German words Rindern, Lindern, Mindern, embodying every possibility of a physician's distinctive sphere of usefulness.

Principles of Homceopathy. true physician

who knows

constitutes a legitimate

beyond the operation

its

method law

of the

3

subordinate place,

it

in incurable diseases, of cure,

where we can

only alleviate, not radically cure. While Homoeopathy reduces the need and occasions for the use of mere palliatives to a small limit, yet palliation has its use in the practice of medicine, but

on the part

of the

it is

always the expression

physician of his impotence to cure

radically.

Curative Medicine

Homoeopathy,

for

is

this

almost exclusively occupied by method alone cures without

subjecting the patient to it

alone

fulfills

new pains and discomforts; aim of the physician to

—

the highest

heal quickly, gently, radically, according to scientific

and rational methods. All physicians are compelled to avail themselves of all three

enists,

methods

As sanitarians and hygito prevent zymotic and as homoeopathists, much can be

at times.

physicians can do

much

epidemic diseases; done in the eradication of inherited disease tendencies and preventing their development; and as the laws that govern curative medicine are applied more fully, the need for mere palliation will correspondingly grow less. Leaving aside the large field of General Therapeutics, common to all physicians, of whatever school of medicine,

we

restrict ourselves to the consideration of the

different uses of drugs as therapeutic agents.

Medicinal Tlierapeutics

is

the application of drugs

as medicines for the purpose of modifying or curing

Drugs are employed in the medicinal thera-

disease.

peutic field either empirically, or according to the of Similars

—

i.

e.,

scientifically,

Law

because according to

fixed law. is based upon mere experience and is without regard to any theory or scientific

Empiricism practice

A

4

COMPEND OF THE

A

deduction or investigation.

remedy

is

given which

experience has shown to be effective in a similar case. It is the rule of

authority and leads to mechanical

Certain remedies have, howpermanent place in medicine that have been discovered empirically, and whose mode of

routinism in practice. ever, obtained a

action cannot be readily explained.

It

has been found

that certain drugs act curatively against certain definite diseases

known

when given

as specifics.

in material dosage.

They are

There are not many, but such are

Quinine in malaria, Mercury in syphilis. Iodine in glandular affections. Salicylic acid in rheumatism,

etc.

These occupy a rather unique position, though it can be claimed that the relationship is a homoeopathic one, although it differs from the usual homoeopathic relationship between remedies to disease in requiring material dosage.

Practice according to

some pathological theory

characteristic of the old school of medicine.

is

It is con-

stantly changing, as different views on physiology

and

pathology lead to corresponding therapeutic changes. It is therefore one of the most unstable of methods*

dominated by bacteriomeasures are largely germicidal, anti-septic or anti-toxical. But

At

present, pathology being

logical views, the corresponding therapeutic

already bacterial pathology, and as a consequence therapeutics

show signs

of

the

its

inevitable displace-

ment.* to

The use of medicines when administered according some pathological theory is either according to allo-

pathic or antipathic method. *Says Lawson Tait, that during his professional

life

he has

learned and unlearned some four or tive theories of inflammation, and he predicts that the present prevalent theory, coccophobia he calls

it,

will

soon go the way of the other theories.

Phinciples of Homceopathy.

6

Allopathy (from Alios, other and Pathos, a disease), where the symptoms are different, the same organs and tissues being affected in a different manner, or other organs and tissues being affected in some manner; the relationship being one of indefinite diversity* Allopathy usually attacks the parts most exempt from the disease, in order to draw away the disease through them and thus to expel it, as is imagined. § 55 Organon.

Antipathy, or Eailtiopathy (from Eanthios, contrary, where the symptoms, or condidisease) tions indicated by them, are opposites; the relationship being one of direct antagonism. It is a palliative method, pure and simple, wherewith the physician can appear to be most useful and can usually gain the patient's confidence by deluding him with momentary

—

and Pathos,

amelioration.

The

inefficacy

and danger

of this

in diseases of a chronic nature clinical observation. '^All

Study

§

is

method

as applied

easily verified

by

56-71 Organon.

pure experience and exact experiment will con-

vince us that persistent

symptoms

of

disease are

so

exterminated by contrary symptoms of a drug, used according to antipathic or palliative method, that after a brief period of apparent relief, they will break forth again in a more marked imperfectly alleviated

degree,

and

or

visibly aggravated."

In this category

of allopathic

Organon

§ 23.

treatment belong the

therapeutic method of Biochemistry, introduced by Dr.

Schuessler of Germany, and the various forms of chem-

The former treatment, such as Hensel's, etc. adopted from Homoeopathy its method of diminishing dosage and some of its distinctive remedies, but other-

ical

*Dake, Pathogenetic Therapeutics.

A COMPEND

6 wise

it

OF THE

has no relationship to Homoeopathy, since

its

therapeutic procedures are based upon a pathological

and not upon the symptoms of the individual which alone constitute the basis of homoeopathic therapeutics. Here also belongs theory

patient,

Orgauo-Therapy, which is that therapeutic method which aims to supply deficiencies in the functional activity of human organs by the administration of substances derived from similar organs in animals. It

of

has been found that the extract

animals, administered to

the

of

Thyroid gland

human

causes a rapid disappearance of the morbid of

myxedema

thyroid,

—a

organism,

symptoms

form of disease or atrophy with the performance

interfering

of the of

its

function.

The doctrine that sound organs

of certain

are useful in diseases of those organs in

man

animals so lately

revived in the old school, was clearly taught by Oswald Croll, a disciple of Paracelsus. is

Its

modern extension

unreasonable and unscientific, and a passing thera-

peutic fad.

Besides these special and

modern tendencies

school practice, there are certain

of old

perennial features

In place of the former hypothetit. assumptions of the hidden causes of disease that

characteristic of ical

proved delusive and deceptive as a basis for treatment, material causes of disease were next assumed to exist, and hence the treatment, based upon such hypotheses, consisted mostly in eliminating from the organism the supposed offending cause, therefore the list of purgatives, emetics, sudorifics counter-irritants, surgical pro-

But though a temporary relief is frequently obtained thereby, no permanent cure is established, rather an increase in cedures, local medication of all kinds.

the very condition, in the case of chronic disease; or

Principles of Homceopathy.

7

metastases appear sooner or later, which, however, are

then looked upon as new diseases, and not as direct

re-

sults of ill-adapted treatment.

"

But

disease,

in

by

far the greatest proportion of cases of

known

as chronic, these impetuous, weakening,

and indirect therapeutie measures of the old school scarcely ever prove to be of the least benefit.

For a

few days at most they suspend one or another of those

troublesome manifestations of disease which return, however, as soon as nature has become inured to that counter-stimulus; and the disease will re-appear with

more

violence, because the vital

duced by the pain

powers have been reand improper

of counter-irritation

evacuations." *

Objections to Antipathic Treatment. It is merely symptomatic treatment attacking (1) some prominent single condition, instead of the disease as a whole, and neccosarily leads to polypharmacy in the endeavor to meet different conditions at the same time. The transient amelioration is followed by an (2)

increased aggravation of the very condition to be re-

moved, necessitating increasing dosage.

Drug

(3)

diseases are established that complicate

hopelessly the original disease of the patient; sibility of

harm by

the pos-

the introduction of the necessary

large dosage of drugs

and foreign substances always

being very evident.

None

of these therapeutic

methods are curative in

the true sense by directly modifying the vital activities of

the organism.

In the cases where such treatment

is

ultimately successful (and certain temporary beneficial results

cannot be denied), the homoeopathic method is more radical, and with no possible

more

direct, safer,

harm

to the patient.

*

"Organon,'" Introduction.

.

A COMPEND

8

OF THE

Law

Practice based upon the

of Cure is the only method, since it alone fulfills the conditions of science and offers a medical practice true for all time and applicable to all forms of

truly scientific therapeutic

disease in

men and

Homoeopathy upon law.

is

animals. the only therapeutic method based

Like affections are

Siniilia Siniilibus Curantur.*

cured by their similars, expresses the law for drug selection

in

curable forms

all

By

disease.

of

remedy

its

found in curable cases; and in incurable cases, the same law usually points to a remedy that will act palliatively in most By Law of Cure is meant the definite path conditions. along which a drug force moves to cure a diseased conThis law forms the basis of Homoeopathy dition. [from the Greek words homiios and pathos, meaning application, the curative

is

similar affections], the therapeutic

the principle that *

any drug which

method that applies is

capable of pro-

There exists a misconception concerning the phraseology em-

Hahnemann in the expression of the Law of Similars. Dr. K. E. Dudgeon, the recognized authority concerning the works

ploy ed by

Hahnemann, writes in the appendix to his translation of the Organon, " Hahnemann always wrote the formula Similia Similibus Curentur, thereby giving an imperative or mandatory turn to the phrase." The translation must evidently be "Let likes be " Darch Beobachtung, Nachdenken und Erfahrung treated by likes." fand ich, dass im Gegentheile von leiztern [Erleichterungsmittel und of

Palliative durch die Curart contraria contrariis] die wahre, 7'khtige, hesie

Heilung zufindensei in

Wr'ihle,

um

dem

Satze Similia Similibua

sanft, schnell, gerwiss

Kratikheilsfalle

e'lne

und dauerhaft zu

Argnei, welche

erregen kann, als sie heilen soil!"

ein aehnliches

Curentur. in jedem

heilen,

Leiden fur sich

Nevertheless, Similia Simiiibus

Curantur has been almost universally adopted by the homoeopathic school, and the belief and conviction have been unconsciously ex-

—

—

pressed thereby that it is a laic of nature S. S. Curantur Likes are cured by likes; rather than a rule of art, S. S. Curentur— Let likes be treated

by

likes.

Principles of Homceopathy. ducing symptoms

of disease in the

9

healthy will remove when found

similar symptoms, and thus cure the disease

in the sick.

The first promulgation of tliis principle was made by Hahnemann in 1796, in an essay published in Hufeland's Journal, entitled " On a new principle for ascertaining the curative properties of drugs."

In this

Hahnemann

formulated his conclusions thus: " Every powerful medicinal substance produces in the human body a peculiar kind of disease, the more

essay

powerful the medicine, the more peculiar, marked and We should imitate nature, which violent the disease. sometimes cures a chronic disease by superadding

another and employ in the disease we wish to cure that medicine which is able to produce another very similar artificial disease,

and the former

will be cured

— Similia

Similibus."

This was six years after his first experiments with Cinchona bark, which was the first drug experimented with and which gave striking evidences of the similarity between the effects it is capable of producing, and those for which it had ever been employed, and which was the beginning of a rational, scientific, Materia Medica, and of a scientific therapeutics based thereon. The most characteristic feature about the development of

Homoeopathy is the strict observance of the inductive method of research that Hahnemann adopted. Careful ries

expeiiments were instituted, all preconceived theowere ostracized, and the results and rigid deduc-

tion from

them were not published

until years

had

elapsed in which to verify all the statements.

The development of the homoeopathic principle began in the mind of Hahnemann with his experiments with Cinchona, which in turn led him to other experiments with other drugs and patient search of recorded

A COMPEND

10

OF THE

and uses

of drugs throughout the medical literHis first suggestions fell unheeded by the profession; but he continued his experiments, and nine years later published a work in Latin ''On the Positive Effects of Medicines," and at the same time declared the principle of Similars as a law of general applica-

action ature.

tion.

Five years more

ment enabled him principles

its

in

of further reflection

great

his

book, the

The following

Rational Medicine."

and experi-

system and embody

to perfect his

"Organon

of

while

a

year,

teacher at the University of Leipsic, he published vol-

ume I of his

"Materia Medica Pura," containing original

made by

provings

himself and members of his family,

by some enthusiastic disciples that him at the University; and in 1821 around gathered

and

assisted later

he published the final sixth volume, containing the positive effects of sixty-four medicines. With the publication of these two great works, Hahnemann provided both the theoretical and practical requirements

of

Homoeopathy as a distinct method of therapeutics. He was the first to apply the inductive method of research to therapeutics.

He

says, in the preface to

the second edition of the Organon, published in 1818: "

The true healing

art

is

in

its

nature a pure science of

and must rest on phenomena pertaining

and

experience, and can

clear facts

on the sensible

to their sphere

of action.

Its subjects

can only be derived from pure

experience and observation, and single step out of

it

dares not take a

the sphere of pure, well-observed

experience and experiment."

And, again,

"

Every

one of its conclusions about the actual must always be based on sensible perceptions, facts and experiences, if it

would

elicit

the truth."

Homoeopathy, the Science of Therapeutics.

Such

a healing art conformable to nature and experience, a

Principles of Homceopathy.

11

science of therapeutics, therefore, did not exist hefore

Hahnemann. The most marked

feature of the early homoeopathy was its entire freedom from all theory and hypothesis; it was a protest against all and any pathological theory as a basis of therapeutics.

As taught,

it

was the true

science of therapeutics,

natural phenomena in and drug action, and noting the law governing their mutual relationship. On this solid ground of scientific observation, all

based upon exact observation

of

disease

Homoeopathists base their practice, whatever differences have arisen, date from the publication of Hahnemann's theory of chronic diseases and drug dynamization, and in not clearly distinguishing between Hahnemann's discoveries and facts on the one hand and his illustrations and mere theories on the other. Whatever Hahnemann published as a fact has never yet been disproved, but his theories are not proven. It is the genuine Hahnemannian spirit, as Hering says, totally to disregard all theories, even those of one's own fabri-

when they are in opposition to the results of pure experience. All theories and hypotheses have no

cation,

positive weight whatever, only so far as they lead to

new experiments and

afford a better survey of the re-

sults of those already

made.

The Great (1)

The

Central Truths of Homoeopathy. totality of

symptoms

of the patient consti-

tutes the disease for the purpose of a cure.

Drug experimentation on the healthy, so-called (2) drug proving, is the only reliable method to arrive at a knowledge of the effects of drugs. (3)

The curative

symptomatic

relation between these two sets of

facts is the

ibus Curantur.

law

of similars, Similia Simil-

A

12 (4) time. (5)

COMPEND OF THE

The administration

The minimum

of

one single remedy at a

(smallest) dose that will bring

about a cure. (6)

Repetition of the dose should cease

improvement Isopathic

when marked

sets in.

Medication

modern form of employment of morthe cure of the same dis-

and

Serum -Therapy. This means bid products of a disease for

its

the

ease [Aequalia aequalibus].

It is of very ancient date, has received renewed attention through the researches of Pasteur, Koch, and others; it necessitates the attenuation of the virus, in order to be used medicinally; it was taught as early as 400 years b. c. by Xenocrates; it was introduced into Homoeopathy by

and

of late

Lux in 1823, and in part adopted by Dr. Hering. Lux taught that the toxins formed in the body, prop-

Dr.

erly attenuated, are capable of curing the very diseases

—

them that is, every disease is supposed to have within itself its own antidote. In 1830 Hering proposed as a remedy for hydrophothat give rise to

bia the saliva of a rabid dog, properly attenuated; the

very teaching and practice of Pasteur.

He

also pro-

posed Phthisine as a remedy for tuberculosis, and forty years later it, too, received popular and scientific en-

dorsement by Koch and others. As early as 1834, Dr. Stapf, one of the greatest of the early homoeopathists,who looked upon the subject dispassionately, says: " I

do not doubt that the discovery of the curative acmorbid matters, in diseases that produced them, to be one of the most important discoveries that has been made since the beginning of our school."

tion of

Nosodes is the homoeopathic designation for such morbid products, which are animal alkaloids [ptomaines], produced by the decomposition of animal sub-

Principles of Homceopathy.

13

At first ptomaines were restricted to alkaloids produced by cadaveric decomposition, hence the name (ptomaine, belonging to a dead body), but now they also include alkaloids of animal origin formed during life as a result of chemical changes within the organThese alkaloids have assumed great importance, ism. stances.

by reason of their relation to the causation of disease, and it is probable that most pathogenic bacteria produce their effects through their specific alkaloids. The homoeopathic nosodes are these specific alkaloids attenuated according to homoeopathic methods and administered according to the Law of Similars. To obtain a permanent place in the Materia Medica, as Psorinum, the principal of the nosodes, has already achieved, and not be the victim of a passing therapeutic fad, as is the fate of most old-school therapeutic novelties, they must he proved on the healthy, and the pathogenetic effects thus obtained be the only guide for their therapeutic application. To apply them empirically for similar diseases corresponding to their origin as is done by the old-school with tuberculin, antitoxin is disastrous and non-homoeopathic. Study in this connection: The Organon: The Introduction, called by Hahnemann, "A Keview of Therapeutics; allopathy and palliative treatment, that have hitherto been practiced in the old-school of medicine, " together with historical intimations of Homoeopathy before Hahnemann's time. Also,

Also,

Organon $ 1-6, on the Functions of the Physician. Homoeopathy, the Science of Therapeutics, by Carroll

Dunham. Homoeopathy, the only system Mack. Pathogenic Therapeutics, by Methods.

of curative medicine,

by Charles

S.

Hahnemann's

J. P.

Dake, in his Therapeutic

criticism of Isopathy, in the

Organon, Introduc-

tion, note 34.

Dr. Dudgeon's most valuable appendix to his translation and edition of the Organon, page 200.

A COMPEND

14

OF THE

CHAPTER II. PRINCIPLES OF PHARMACOLOGY. Pharmacology {pharmakon, is

a drug, logos a discourse)

a convenient term for the whole subject of Materia

Medica, pharmacy and medicinal therapeutics. fically, it refers often

to

drug

effects, as

experiments on animals, and as such of

modern old-school knowledge

is

Speci-

evinced from

the only source

of the physiological

action of drugs.

Materia Medica their

especially

is

the study of drugs in regard to

physical and chemical properties, but

origin,

and

chiefly in regard to their effects in

fying the health of the body. tinctive field of the

all

latter

is

modi-

the dis-

Homoeopathic Materia Medica.

Drugs and Drug Action. taken from

The

Drugs are substances

the kingdoms of nature that are used as

They usually produce deleterious effects body when given in sufficiently large doses in upon the health, and they modify some part, or the whole, of a morbid state when given to the sick. This property is discovered either empirically by observation of cases of poisoning, or by systematic experiments on human medicines.

beings in health.

Medicinal force is a distinct property of drugs, by which they modify vital activity, not by their chemical, physical or mechanical properties, but by their specific

dynamic property,

peculiar,

distinctive

and

And

they can be truly curaproperties of the modifying their reason of tive only by be it plant, substance, medicinal Each processes. vital different in every drug.

mineral or

animal product, has

stored within

material particles, and embodies, therefore,

its

its

own par-

Principles of Homceopathy.

15

force, which can be brought into by breaking up the outward particles. The

ticular medicinal activity

character of this specific force, or the drug's medicinal properties, can only be discovered by the vital test,

made by experimenting with different doses on healthy human organisms, and to some extent on animals. The

latter

merely to see the ultimate lesions and

or-

ganic changes drugs are able to produce.

At one time, and especially during the middle

ages,

before the introduction of modern, scientific methods,

the properties of drugs were based

External characteristics

Doctrine of Signatures. of a

upon the

substance served to indicate possible therapeutic

Fancied or real resemblances between some part of a plant and some particular organ or fluid of the body pointed to therapeutic relationship. Thus,

effects.

according to this doctrine, Digitalis must be of use in

blood diseases, because

its

flowers are adorned with

blood colored dots; Euphrasia was famous as a remedy

had a black spot in its coralla, which looked like a pupil.* The lungs of a fox must be specific against asthma, because this animal has a very vigorous respiration. Hypericum having red juice ought therefore to be of for the eyes, because it

use in haemorrhages.

Euphorbia, having a milky

juice,

must be good

for

increasing the flow of milk. Sticta, having some likeness to the lungs, was called pulmonarius and esteemed as a remedy for pulmonary

complaints.

Singularly enough, in isolated instances at least, such relationship actually does exist, as has been verified

subsequent clinical application, and

an intuitively *Grauvogl.

gifted race

may

it

is

by

possible that

see a relationship actu-

—

A COMPEND

16

ally existing between

But

inner uses. apeutics

it is

for

OF THE

outward forms and structures and purposes of modern scientific ther-

valueless. *

Other methods of determining the medicinal

vir-

tues of drugs were by the sense of taste and of smell.

Drugs with a

bitter taste

were held to possess tonic and

stomachic virtues, hence the " Bitters " of the ordinary pharmacopoeia. Gentiana, for instance, is such a drug,

and unquestionably does exert a tonic influence upon But this virtue is probably not because

the stomach.

but because

has a distinctive medicinal Certain aromatic drugs were deemed to possess anti-spasmodic and stimulant properties, etc.

it

bitter,

is

it

force wholly independent of its taste.

Experimental Pharmacology. The modern method knowledge of drugs is by experimentation on animals, chiefly frogs, rabbits, dogs, cats, etc. But this method is objectionable on account of the difference in structure and physiology of these animals for arriving at a

*

"The

soul does not perceive the external or internal physical

construction of herbs and roots, but

it

intuitively perceives their

powers and virtues and recognizes

at

once their signatum.

signature

is

This

a certain organic vital activity giving each natural ob-

ject (in contra-distinction to artificially

similarity with a certain condition

made

produced by

which health may be restored in

objects)

disease,

a certain

and through

specific diseases in the diseased

This signatum is often expressed, even in the exterior form of things, and by observing that form we may learn something in regard to their interior qualities, even without using our interior part.

sight.

We

see that the internal character of a

man

is

often ex-

pressed in his exterior appearance, even in the manner of his walkLikewise the hidden character ing, and in the sound of his voice. of things is to a certain extent expressed in their

As long

as

man remained

outward forms.

in a natural state, he recognized the sig-

natures of things and knew their true character; but the more he diverged from the path of nature and the more his mind became captivated by illusive external appearances, the more this power

became

lost."

Paracehus.

Principles of Homceopathy.

and the vast

difference in their susceptibility to the

Nux

action of medicines. yet pigs can eat

it

freely;

a small dose, yet dogs

punity.

Opium

17

is

most poisonous

Aconite

is

to

fatal to

and horses can eat

man,

man

in

with im-

it

Birds are not susceptible to the action of

Again, the dynamic

or Atropin, etc.

effects of

drugs differ among animals. For instance, Ipecac and Tartar Emetic are emetics to men and dogs, but not to rabbits. Such methods of arriving at the crude drug effects

may

be sufficient to determine the so-called

physiological effects of drugs, of

them based

thereon, but

is

and the antipathic use wholly inadequate for

purposes of Homoeopathy. They have their use, also, in determining the ultimate organic lesions produced

by certain drugs, whenever proving to such an extent.

it

is

desirable to push a

Physiological action of drugs. Drugs produce in when given in sufficiently large doses,

the organism,

certain disturbances or alterations of function, usually of

The dosage

a correspondingly definite character.

required for this purpose

is,

as a rule, a fixed one within

It is the physiological dose

certain limits.

dose large enough to produce symptoms.

stipates the bowels, produces insensibility.

purposes a recognized, fixed quantity less

is

—that

Opium

is,

a

con-

For these

necessary, not

than one-half to one grain. This constitutes its dose. Strychnia increases the reflex

physiological

excitability of the spinal cord, in doses of one-twelfth to one-thirtieth of a grain.

in ten

Now

minim

Digitalis slows the heart

doses.

this direct, absolute action of drugs,

constant, can be

wherever this diate results

is

made

possible.

Its

is

advantages are imme-

and improvement

of certain conditions

opposed to this direct drug action. It 2

which

the basis of treatment of disease,

is,

therefore, pal-

A COMPEND

18 liative

where indicated.

OF THE

This use of drugs

is

based

upon the law of contraria contrariis opponenda, when an opposite result is desired, or when it is intended to produce not an opposite, but

an entirely

different

action, as, for instance, a purgative in a case of head-

ache. The objections to this direct use of drug effects, by means of physiological dosage, are the limited field to which such action is applicable and the necessity for increasing dosage, and sooner or later opposite re-

actionary results that

make

All physicians

useless.

further use of the drug

may make

use of this direct,

physiological action of certain drugs for certain conditions,

but

its

usefulness

is

limited.

Hahnemann him-

self clearly defines it as follows:

" I do not fail to recognize the great ability *bf palli-

They

atives.

are often not only quite sufficient in

and developing rapidly, but they have great advantages, indeed, where aid cannot cases appearing suddenly

be postponed for an hour, or even a minute.

Here, and

here alone, are palliatives of real use."

This use of drugs for their direct primary

effects

means

of a

limits,

always definite and precise, has led to a

by

dosage sufficiently large and within certain classi-

and and not differing materially from that introduced by Dioscorides, the fication of drugs, according to their physiological

some

,of

their therapeutic actions,

father of Materia Medica.

Since his time drugs have

been classified into three principal classes, evacuants, The evacuants are ag an alteratives and specifics. subdivided with respect to the various routes by which

nature expels the morbid matters, such as purgatives, Alteratives comprise

expectorants and diaphoretics.

drugs which alter the course of morbid conditions, modifying the nutritive processes while promoting waste, and thus indirectly curing some chronic diseases;

Principles of Homoeopath y. such are Mercury, Iodine and Arsenic.

19

They increase

metabolism.

Other classes are the antipyretics, emmenagogues, styptics, anthelmintics, astringents, etc., etc.

While such

classification is very imperfect,

and but

a partial designation of the properties of drugs, for every

drug

may

perties in still,

there

belong to several classes, and its special proany class are at best vague and uncertain, is

some advantage

themselves of the direct drug

to those

who want

effects, of this

to avail

drug

classi-

based on some of their more marked pathogeBut it is entirely useless netic and therapeutic effects. fication,

for homoeopathic prescribing.

The homoeopathic method by means of drug experimentation on the healthy, so-called drug proving. This is the only scientific and rational method of ascertaining the action of medicines. All other methods have proved useless and misleading. The credit of first teaching the necessity of proving drugs upon the healthy belongs to Albrecht von Haller, a Swiss physiAs early as 1755, in his Swiss pharmacopoeia, he cian. distinctly taught this, but nothing came of it. It was Samuel Hahnemann, in 1796, practically work and actually experimented with drugs on himself and others that the first pure effects of drugs became known and could be rationally employed in Hahnemann was thus the founder of the practice. science of drug pathogenesy, for it is a fact that up to his tinl^no one had made any physiological experiment with any drug; it is a fact that his experiments with Peruvian Bark were the first ever made in the domain The of pharmacology, and are a model to this day. science of drug proving dates therefore from 1796, and not until

went

is

to

the beginning of a rational therapeutics.

With the

adoption of this principle, we have a key to unlock the

;

A COMPEND

20

OF THE

sphere of action of every substance in nature, so far as it

can bear any relation to man's constitution in health

and

disease.

It is a creative principle, universal in its

The introduction of it marks an epoch in the development of the healing art, before which time a science of therapeutics was impossible. application, true for all time.

into medicine

In the Organon, §§ 108-9, Hahnemann says: " There is, therefore, no other possible way in which the peculiar effects of medicine on the health of individuals can be accurately ascertained; there is no aure, no more natural way of accomplishing this object than to administer the several medicines experimentally, in moderate doses, to healthy persons, in order to ascer-

what changes, symptoms and signs of their influence each individual produces on the health of the body and of the mind; that is to say, what disease elements they are able and tend to produce, since, as has been demonstrated, all the curative power of medicines lies in the power they possess of changing the state of man's health, and is revealed by observation of tain

the latter."

Drug Pathogenesy is the record of testing the human body in varying doses, and on

drugs on different

individuals of both sexes, and observing all the

symp-

toms, subjective and objective, from the minutest dis-

turbed function and mental state to the grossest organic lesion. "Simple drugs," says Hahnemann, "produce in the healthy body

symptoms

peculiar to themselves,

but not all at once, nor in one and the same series, nor Such a method of arriving all in each experimenter." at a knowledge of drugs is universal in its application it includes all that can be learned from toxicology also.

The value of toxicology as is

far

inferior,

illustrating

drug action

however, to that of testing them in

—

Principles of Homceopathy.

21

health by means of small doses. Still it gives the ultimate lesions and organic changes, and in this wayinterprets

ever

many symptoms

the organism

destructive agent, no matter is

much

usually

but whenby a foreign

of the provings;

violently invaded

is

what the poison

is,

there

similarity of action, resulting from

it off by all possible routes outward from the body's distinctive vital centers, hence

nature's efforts to throw

the inevitable nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, nerve disturbances, convulsions, paralysis, etc., of most poison-

The provings with small doses avoid these crude,

ings.

and, instead of producing them, rather

extreme

effects,

indicate

them by the milder disturbances produced.

Different Applications of Drug-action. The knowledge of what drugs will do when given to a healthy subject can be utilized in two different ways, both legit-

and

imate,

it is

a

mere matter

of experience

and obser-

vation to determine which is the better. We can use a If this is drug to produce its physiological effects.

drug must be given in a dose large enough produce symptoms that is, in a so-called physiological dose, differing with each drug and determined by experiment. This is the antipathic use of drugs, and has nothi7ig to do with Homoeopathy, or the law of It is, moreover, very limited in its application, cure. and objectionable on many grounds. The other method, the homoeopathic relationship, is

desired, the

—

to

universal in

its

application,

and

is

not confined to any

special dosage, provided such always cal

i.

e.,

less

than

is

is

sub-physiologi-

required to produce symptoms.

Hence, drugs can act in tivo different ways when given in disease, and we can have, therefore: 1.

Homoeopathic relationship

—when given for con-

ditions similar to those they are capable of producing.

Applicable to

all

drugs,

and universal

in its extent.

A

22

COMPEND OF THE

Antipathic

(2)

allopathic relationship

or

—when

given in physiological dosage to produce their direct or physiological

effects.

This

is,

as

first,

we have

stated before, of but very limited application.

The only

difference in the application of drugs to

disease with the two schools of medicine

is,

that the

old school gives drugs solely to obtain their

physiological

effects,

direct,

and rather favors combination

of

remedies, while the homoeopathic school depends entirely

single

upon the curative results obtained by giving the remedy in a sub-physiological dose for symp-

toms similar

to those

it is

known

to produce.

For reference and further study, see Hahnemann's Essay on a Principle for Ascertaining the Curative Powers of Drugs in his Lesser Writings, page 249.

New

Hahnemann's Essay on the Sources of the Common Materia Medica, being Preface to Vol. II of the Materia Medica Pura.

The

Physiological Action of Medicines, by

Wm.

Sharp, in Es-

says on Medicine, page 417.

General Principles of Drug Action, by K. Hughes, in Pharmacodynamics; lecture IV-V.

An

interesting account

and

practical application of the Doctrine

of Signatures can be found in Grauvogl's Textbook,

Samuel A Jones, M.D.: Faith."

An

inspiring

Dudgeon.

little

"The Grounds

of a

$ 91-95.

Homoeopath's

work.

"Lectures on Homoeopathy."

Lect. VI, Isopathy.

Pkinciples of Homceopathy.

23

CHAPTER III. THE EVOLUTION OF THE HOMCEOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA. The Homoeopathic Materia Medica is a record of upon the healthy human organism,

the effects of drugs

embodying a knowledge

when brought in The of the body. 1.

of

what drugs actually do

contact with the functional activity sources of this knowledge are,

The systematic provings.

Observations of cases of poisoning and over-doswhich Hahnemann and his disciples have gathered from general medical literature. 2.

ings,

The First Book on Drug Effects. The first work embodying such record is that of Hahnemann, entitled It Fragmenta de ViriMis Medicamentorum Positivis. is a Latin work, and published in Leipsic in 1805. Twenty-seven drugs are treated of, containing symptoms Hahnemann himself had observed as effects of poisoning or from excessive dosing, and of provings on himself.* ''I have instituted experiments," he says in in chief part on my own person, but also the preface, on some others whom I knew to be perfectly healthy and free from all perceptible disease." "In those experiments which have been made by myself and my disciples, every care has been taken to '^

* It is interesting to know the names of the pioneer medicines whose pathogenic effects were first published in this work of Hahnemann. They are Aconitum, Arnica, Belladonna, Camphora,

Cantharis, Capsicum, Causticum, Chamomilla, Cinchona, Cocculus, Copaiva, Cuprum, Digitalis, Drosera, Helleborus, Hyoscy-

amus, Ignatia, Ipecacuanha, Ledum, Mezereum, Nux vomica, Opium, Pulsatilla, Rheum, Stramonium, Valeriana, Veratrum album. Of these, Cantharis, Copaiva, and Valeriana, Hahnemann did not include in his subsequently published "Materia Medica."

A COMPEND

24 secure the true

and

full action of the

provings have been health, ease.

—

and

OF THE medicines.

made upon persons

in

Our

perfect

and comparative extraordinary circumstance of any

living in contentment

When an

kind fright, chagrin, external injuries, the excessive enjoyment of any one pleasure, or some event of great importance supervened during the proving, then no other symptom has been recorded after such an event,

—

symptoms being noted as such circumstances were of slight importance, and could hardly be supposed to interfere with the action of the medicine, the symptoms have been placed in brackets, for the purpose of informing the reader that they could not be considered decisively

in order to prevent spurious

genuine.

When

genuine."

Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura. Five years now elapsed before Hahnemann pubmore in the line of drug pathogenesy. They must have been five years of intense labor and experiment. Then appeared the first volume of that

lished anything

great classical work, the " Materia Medica Pura," con-

taining the symptomatology of twelve medicines, six of

which had already appeared in the Latin

treatise

published before.

Five years later appeared the second volume, containing the symptomatology of eight medicines, which was soon succeeded by the four other volumes, containing in all the pathogenic effects of sixty-one drugs. It is a monumental work, the result of Hahnemann's

matchless penetration, wonderful insight and accurate He was most observation, of which he was a master.

ably assisted in this work by thirty-five fellow-provers, among whom the names of Franz, Gross, Hartmann, Herrmann, Hornburg, Riickert, Stapf, and Friedrich

Hahnemann

are the most conspicuous

be remembered by

all

and deserve

students of Materia Medica.

to

Principles of Homceopathy.

25

In 1822 appeared a second edition of this great work, with considerable additions to the symptomatology of all the remedies and some new medicines besides. A

and fourth edition were published

third

after

some years.

Publication of the "Chronic Diseases."

In 1828

Hahnemann

eases,"

containing

pletely

new

published his ''Chronic Dis-

symptomatology

the

medicines, a

series of

acting drugs, like Calcarea, Sulphur,

etc.,

deeply-

the so-called

The symptomatology

Anti-psoric remedies.

a com-

of

series of

of these

remedies was not wholly pathogenetic, but included observations at the bedside, so-called clinical symptoms.

A

second edition, greatly enlarged and

now

con-

taining the symptomatology of twenty-five remedies, besides the twenty-two of the

between 1835 and 1839.

A

first edition,

appeared

peculiar feature of the

provings in this work is that the bulk of them must have been obtained with the thirtieth potency, and often are observations

when given

to the sick, differing

from the pathogenetic effects of the Materia Medica Pura. A new English translation of this great work has just appeared in this country.

entirely, therefoi-e,

Besides

Hahnemann and

his

immediate

disciples,

Constantine Hering, of Philadelphia, contributed the best provings to the homoeopathic Materia Medica, some of his drugs ranking in importance with Hahnemann's own. Of these, Lachesis, Glonoine and Apis take first rank.

Another large contributor

Medica was by introducing American remedies that had been in use by botanic physicians, and gathering all that was known as to the therapeutic properties in one volume, called "New Remedies." We have, then, as Dr. E. M. Hale, not so

to the Materia

much by proving

as

—

A COMPEND

26

OF THE

Sources of the Homoeopathic Materia Medica. 1.

Hahnemann's Materia Medica Pura, published

in 1811, containing the pathogenesis of the great polychrests

i. e.,

many

remedies of

uses

and wide and

fre-

quent application. 2.

Hahnemann's Chronic

1828, containing the

Diseases,

so-called

published in

Antipsoric

remedies,

those especially adapted to the cure of chronic diseases. 3.

Dr. Jorg's Provings

sity of Leipsic

not one of his followers.

Camphor, Ignatia.

Digitalis,

Some

professor at the Univer-

He

of

Hahnemann, but among others.

proved,

Opium, Arnica, Hydrocy. acid, symptoms are quoted and in-

of his

Hahnemann

cluded by works.

—a

and contemporary

in the second edition of his

4.

Dr. Hering and the American Provers' Union.

5.

Dr.

E.

M. Hale's contributions in

his "

New

Remedies." 6.

Various provings and reprovings under the aus-

pices of the

American Institute

of

Homoeopathy, vari-

ous State societies and individual provings published in

our journalistic literature.

Also,

Hartlaub and by

Trink's pathogeneses, Stapf's additions, provings

the Austrian Society,

etc., etc.

These records are at present collected in three great works: 1. "Allen's Enclycopaedia," in ten volumes. 2.

''Cyclopaedia of

Drug Pathogenesy,"

in four vol-

umes. These two works contain the symptoms obtained by provings, and from records of poisoning, i. e., pathogenetic symptoms. 3.

which

"Hering's Guiding Symptoms," in ten volumes, also contains clinical or curative

observed on the sick.

symptoms

—

i.

e.j

Principles of Homceopathy.

27

The comparative value of the three sources of symptoms, from records of toxicology, provings on healthy and observation on sick. Toxicology. Violent cases of poisoning never yield

1.

a profitable symptomatology, on account of the violent

invasion by foreign destructive agents.

throws

it off

distinctive etc.,

by

life,

common

all routes

The organism outward and away from its

hence vomiting, diarrhoea, convulsions,

On the other poisoning give us the ultimate

to all kinds of poisoning.

hand, the records action, the tissue

of

and organic changes that the provand thus they illustrate and

ings can only indicate, interpret the provings.

Provings on the healthy.

2.

The provings with com-

paratively small doses avoid these violent, crude and

and instead of producing them, rather them by mild disturbances. We thus obtain the finer and more characteristic action, and thus a much more utilizable picture of drug effects. Fortuextreme

effects,

indicate

nately, the bulk of the homoeopathic Materia

Medica is The symptoms obtained from toxicological observations and from provings are also called pathogenetic symptoms^ and the full record,

made up from

this source.

in the order of their development, pathogenesis.

gives these in

is

called the drug's

The "Cyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesy" their fullest and most accurate form.

Drug

In the evolution effects observed in the sick. homoeopathic Materia Medica, another class of symptoms not bearing the aristocracy of origin, charac3.

of the

terizing pathogenetic

symptoms, were introduced,

so-

This source was almost unavoidable, so long as drug provings on the healthy were limited in number and extent. The called clinical or curative symptoms.

symptomatology

of

most

of the great constitutional or

anti-psoric remedies consists, in large part, of such clin-

A

28 ical

COMPEND OF THE

symptoms. They are such symptoms as disappear remedy, and which are not found

after administering a

among

the pathogenetic

effects, so far as

the provings

have been made; but, wherever genuine, there can be no doubt that they are possible pathogenetic symptoms, could we have full and accurate provings. In this way the homoeopathic Materia Medica has been enlarged, not always wisely, however; for, in order to discover them amidst the symptoms of the disease in a patient,

much discrimination and Hahnemann rightly says that

training

are

exercise of a higher order of inductive minds,

be

required.

this is a " subject for the

and must

masters in the art of observation." But, when found, they must be used tentatively and left solely to

Only then can they be admitted by the side of the true pathogenetic symptoms and form a legitimate addition to the Matecautiously until verified in practice.

ria Medica.

Some

of the greatest characteristics

guiding symptoms belong to this

and

These clinical symptoms have been excluded from the "Encyclopaedia of Materia Medica" by T. F. Allen, and, of course, cannot have any place in the "Cyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesy"; but they are included in full in Hering's " Guiding Symptoms " and in all manuals and textbooks of Materia Medica. In some of these they are designated by a distinguishing mark, usually O, but in

most

of the later

works even

class.

this caution is disre-

garded.

The Hahnemannian Schema.

In order to bring symptomatology within the ready reference of the busy practitioner, Hahnemann, himself a physician of large and extensive practice, and, hence, in need of labor-saving devices, re-arranged it in anatomical order, which has been found so practical for everyday use, that it has been universally adopted by all this vast

Principles of Homceopathy. our authors on Materia Medica.

head and

first

records all the

He

29

begins with the

symptoms

of the

mind,

then those of the eyes, nose, face, etc., downwards, placing together all the symptoms relating In this way the original provings to each section. were dissected, destroying the order of development of sensorium,

etc.;

the symptoms, but greatly facilitating ready reference.

The Repertory or Index of Symptoms. This is another aid that has been found necessary to facilitate the selection of the indicated remedy. It is a useful appendage

to the homoeopathic Materia Medica, by means^ of which we can readily discover almost any recorded symptom of any proven drug. The secret of

successful use of the " Repertory "

is to get thoroughly acquainted with any one of the different repertories by constant reference to it, thus familiarizing oneself with its peculiar arrangement. The most helpful of them

but the one requiring, also, most patient study, is Boeninghausen's " Therapeutic Pocket Book." Its

all,

arrangement is based on a practical analysis of symptoms into their component elements of location, sensation and conditions. (See Chapter V.)

How to learn Drug Pathogenesy and acquire a working knowledge of the homoeopathic Materia Medica has occupied the students of Homoeopathy from the beginning of the school. Unquestionably, the proving of a drug is the truly natural and most effective method of getting a knowledge of its action, and every physician and student should undertake such practical study as at least part of his study of materia medica.

It is

the true, modern, scientific method

by appeal to nature herself. In the absence of this, and as a further aid, the study of original provings, and of records of poisonings, will go far to give a

action of a drug.

good general outline of the

This should be followed by the care-

"

A

30

COMPEND OF THE

and repeated reading

ful

of the recorded

symptoma-

tology, noting the parts especially involved, character

the symptoms, the

conditions under which they and the concomitants connected with each symptom. In this way the peculiar and characteristic symptoms and conditions will appear, which will be the guiding symptoms in practice. These characteristics, so-called key-notes, of the different remedies, must be committed to memory, they form the stock in trade of the homoeopathic prescriber, and will lead to the further and more detailed and comparative study of of

occur,

the remedies. For further study, consult Hughes, "Sources

of the

Homoe-

opathic Materia Medica," in his work ou Pharmacodynamics; also

published separately by Leath

&

Ross, London.

W. Hayward: "How

to Learn Drug Pathogenesy, with discussion, in the Journal of the British Homeopathic Society, January, 1895.

Dr. John

The following

classical papers

Constantine Hering:

"How

should also be consulted:

the Materia Medica should be

Learnt," in British Journal of Homoeopathy, Vol. II.

Dr. Meyer, one of Hahnemann's immediate disciples, on the subject, in North American Journal of Homceopathy, Vol. II.

same

Dr. Pope, in Monthly Homceopathic Review, VIII, and Vol.

XXV.

Dr. H. R. Madden, in same journal, Vol. XIV. Dr. R, Hughes, in same journal. Vol. XXIII, and in Hahnemannian Monthly, Vol. XXIX. Dr. C. Wesselhoeft in

JV.

E. Medical Gazette, Vol. XXII.

Dr. Joseph C. Guernsey, in Hahnemannian Monthly, Vol. XXIX.

American Institute Report

for 1894, Materia

opinions of thirty-one members.

Medica Section;

Edited by Dr. Frank Kraft.

Principles of Homceopathy.

31

CHAPTER IV. DRUG PROVING. The proving of medicines of

Homoeopathy and a

the law of cure;

for,

is

a distinctive feature

logical necessity for applying

in order to meet morbid states

with drugs corresponding to them, we must know, and therefore ascertain,

what morbid

medicinal substances produce.

states the different

It consists in the sys-

tematic testing of a drug on the healthy in order to ascertain the changes

which

human

it is

body,

capable of

producing in the functions and organs. Hahnemann, after viewing the subject in every possible light, and examining every method for ascertaining the action of drugs, came to the conclusion that the efficient way was " to test the medicines singly and alone on the healthy human body."

only

General Rules for Drug Proving. The medicinal is to be proved must be tested singly, without any admixture of any foreign substance, except substance which

an inert vehicle when necessary for its administration. Nothing of a medicinal nature should be taken so long as

it is

desired to observe the effects of the proving.

Each drug should be proved, not only in its crude form and lower material dosage, but with higher attenWhen the latter are used and sympuations as well. toms obtained, a special susceptibility on the part of the prover probably exists and some of the most important characteristics may be elicited from him. Only actually observed facts should be recorded, free from all Such purely positive observatheories of drug action. tion is for all time, and possesses the same value after the lapse of centuries as

it

does at the time

when

first

A

32 observed.

If

COMPEND OF THE

any deductions be drawn from the ob-

served facts, they should not be incorporated into the text,

but kept separate and distinct.

Hahnemann

called his Materia

For this reason, Medica 'Tura" (pure),

because free from

all theories, only a record of observed Hence, in making a proving, great precaution, control experiment, accuracy, close observation, and

facts.

the strictest conscientiousness are essential.

Directions for provers. part in any material habits of

life,

The prover should not de-

way from any

because his

life is

of his

ordinary

based on these habits

and conformed to them, and any marked change in these must result in changes more or less important, which might be put to the account of the drug; hence, his food, drink, sleep, exercise, and habits generally must be such as he has been accustomed to. He should observe himself before beginning a proving, as is liable, even in the best state of health, to

every one

and functions. Havsymptoms he is liable to naturally and without any drug influence, he must avoid

slight variations in his sensations

ing thus discovered what

attributing these to the drug to be proven, unless, indeed, they are

more pronounced than

ever.

Dosage required for proving. As a general rule, begin with a comparatively small dose and increase it gradually till distinct symptoms make their appearance.

The most

sufficient to

useful doses are those that are just

produce distinct symptoms.

very important to test all drugs in regard to their effects on the female organism, hence women, married and unmarried, should contribute to provings. '' Before beginning the record of a proving, she should inscribe in the note-book a state-

Female provers.

ment

of

It is

her age, temperament, the sicknesses which

Principles of Homceopathy.

33

she has had, and those to which she has an inherited or acquired tendency; also, whatever pains or sensations she

may

be habitually subject

liar susceptibilities she

ences of

any kind,

may possess

to;

also,

any pecu-

to external influ-

or to mental, or moral, or emotional

excitements, depressions or perversions.

Her

constitu-

tional peculiarities, respecting the menstrual function,

should be carefully recorded;

regarding

frequency,

and whatever inconveniences or accompany or follow menstruation,

quantity, character, sufferings precede,

such as headache, backache, colic, leucorrhoea, with peculiar states of mind or emotion." *

etc.,

Repetition of doses. No special rule can be given, but it has been the custom of most provers to repeat the dose every few hours until symptoms show themselves.

It is best to give a single, rather large,

dose

and watch its effects. This plan is chiefly useful with some vegetable medicines, whose sphere of action is small, and of which the first dose sometimes exhausts, for a time, the susceptibility of the

system to the action

The continuous repetition of the applicable, if dose is we want to ascertain the special of a drug on some organ or function by conaction of

the substance.

tinued dosing.

Age and sex

are modifying factors in drug proving, drugs should be tried on individuals of both Some drugs possess marked sexes and different ages. affinity for one sex, as Crocus and Platina for the

and

all

female,

and Nux preferably the male.

Temperament.

Different

temperaments should be

chosen, for certain medicines are especially adapted to certain temperaments,

and here

find the

most favor-

able environment for developing their specific effects. *

3

Dunham,

A COMPEND

S4

Re-pro vings.

OF THE

The provings should be repeated in and in the same prover. In order

different individuals

to avoid the admission of accidental

symptoms,

it is

a

although not absolute, not to adopt any symptoms unless it has been found in several provers. By comparing one proving with another, and ascersafe

rule,

taining the constancy with which the different symp-

toms appear, the characteristic symptoms are made manifest. It is to be remembered that all individuals are not alike susceptible to all the effects which a drug is

capable of producing; therefore, the need of a large

number

of

experiments

is

apparent, in order to obtain

a complete view of the action of a drug. Heriiig's Rules for Provers.

Make

(1)

a

first

experimental

test

with a single,

moderate-sized dose.

no symptoms are produced, take it every two or three hours, or change the time of the day for If

(2)

taking

it.

no symptoms, try higher potencies, to which might be added this rational, additional rule: if still no symptoms appear, go lower in the scale of attenuations and give material doses, increasing size until If still

(3)

symptoms appear. In the nature of things, some of the symptoms take time to develop, therefore the first experiments with small doses should not be hurried. The prover should learn to wait, for some of the late appearing symptoms are frequently the most characteristic.

How

to Describe

Symptoms Obtained from

a Prov-

and accuracy should be observed. A sensation should be described by some familiar comparison. State how the symptom is efe., the drug's mofected by different circumstances,

ing.

The

greatest minuteness

i.

dalities, as position of

body, motion,

rest, eating, fast-

Pkinciples of Homceopathy. ing, day, night, indoors,

open

air,

weather,

35 etc.

No

circumstance, however trifling, should be omitted which may in any way tend to indicate the characteristic action of the drug

and

so precisionize

ditions of aggravation

it.

All such con-

and amelioration should be

care-

fully recorded as they express the drug's individuality

most clearly and universally. The sides of the body on which symptoms occur should always be stated, many remedies acting more markedly on one side than another.

The

times of occurence, aggravation or amelioration,

some remedies having distinctmorning aggravation of some or all of their symptoms, others at night, etc. As an illustration of a perfect description of a symptom, take the following of Hahnemann's proving of Nux: " Headache beginning some hours before dinner, increased after eating, then violent shooting pain in left temple, with nausea and very acid vomiting, all of which symptoms disappeared on lying down."

are also very important, ive

The three symptom are,

essential features of every complete therefore,

(1)

Location.

(2)

Sensation.

(3)

Condition

dality),

the

aim

which

is

of

aggravation or amelioration (mo-

and it ought to be symptoms with these

the most important,

of all provers to observe

features well in mind.

Never separate symptoms that appear in groups or with marked concomitants. Hahnemann always left together symptoms appearing in groups, if he considered them really connected; for instance, he observed, forty-five minutes after taking Pulsatilla, a cramp in the legs, in the evening, after lying down, with a chill; and at another time, in the evening, an aching, draw-

A

36

COMPEND OF THE

ing pain in the legs up into the knee, with more chilliness than during the day.

Primary and Secondary Drug

It is a law Effects. drug action, according to which the administration of each medicine causes, at first, certain abnormal symptoms, the so-called primary effects of medicines, but afterwards, by reaction of the organism, a condition entirely the opposite, where this is possible, of this first effect is produced the secondary effects, for instance, narcotic substances produce primarily insensibility and secondarily pain. In order to produce the primary

of

—

effects,

material doses are required.

In his essay, entitled "Suggestions for Ascertaining the Curative Powers of Drugs," Hahnemann says: ''Most medicines have more than one action; the first a direct action, which gradually changes into the second (which I call the indirectly secondary action). The latter is generally a state exactly the opposite of the

former.

In this way most vegetable drugs

few medicines are exceptions to this rule,

and minerals.

The thorough examination

provings, as in our possession at present, justify

any division

of

act.

i. e.,

But

metals

of

does

drug not

drug-symptoms into primary

and secondary. There are indeed in every proving, as Dr. Hering has shown, primary and secondary symptoms, in the sense that some symptoms appear earlier and but although appear opposed each other, they are all to these may and, as such, indias drug symptoms, to be regarded remedy. cate the others later in the course of the proving,

Hahnemann's method of conducting provings. Dr. Hering thus describes it: "After he had lectured to his fellow-workers on the rules of proving, he handed them the

and when they day books, he examined

bottles with the tincture;

afterwards brought

him

their

—

Principles of Homceopathy.

37

every prover carefully about every particular symptom, continually calling attention to the necessary

accuracy in expressing the kind of feeling, the pain the observation and mentioning of

or the locality,

everything that influenced their feelings, the time of day, etc. When handing their papers to him, after

they had been cross-examined, they had to affirm that was the truth, and nothing but the truth, to the best

it

of their

knowledge, by offering their hands to

him

the customary pledge at the universities of Germany,

This was the way in which our master built up his Materia Medica."

instead of an oath.

For

fuller

study see Organon,

$

105 to 145.

Dudgeon, Lectures on Homoeopathy, page and VIII.

176.

Lecture VII

Sharp's Tracts on Homoeopathy, Essay VII. Provingsin Health.

Dunham, page

136.

The Dose in Drug Proving, Drug Pro vers, page 350,

Science of Therapeutics:

Directions for

A

COMPEND OF THE

CHAPTER

V.

INTERPRETATION OF DRUG PATHOGENESIS. The homcBopathic Materia Medica, as it is accessible is a mass of symptomatology,

at present to students,

Hahnemannian Drug Pathogenesy " is which endeavors to give the symptoms

arranged, as a rule, according to the

Schema.

The

the exception,

" Cyclopaedia of

in the order of their development;

but, in order to

practically utilize the provings, the anatomical ar-

rangement

of the

symptomatology

is

desirable.

Besides

arrangement, the bulk of the symptomatology can be analyzed and interpreted helpfully, and thus simpliAll provings of drugs give a symptomatology fied. this

composed (1) (2)

(3)

Of general symptoms. Of peculiar or characteristic symptoms. Of certain elective affinities to special organs or

functions.

General symptoms of drugs. These are common to They can drugs and appear in every proving. Such are symptoms like practically be eliminated. all

feeling of malaise, loss of appetite, weakness, distress,

Such general symptoms, unless amplietc. accompanying conditions or modalities^ are of com-

headache, fied by

paratively little value for the prescriber, because their presence does not point clearly to any one particular drug.

We

must

find in our symptomatology,

and make

use of such symptoms as serve to individualize and give character to a drug, and hence these are called Characteristic

and can express

Symptoms. its

Each drug

is

an

entity,

disease producing properties,

i. e.,

—

Principles of Homceopathy.

39

way

peculiar to itself. Those most perfectly are the drug's The ideal characteristic characteristic symptoms. symptom is one which is possessed by no other than the individual drug of which it is predicated and to which it gives character as an individual. We learn to distinguish drugs very much as we learn to distinguish men, not by their general features, which are common to all, but rather by the peculiar expression and shape and habits by which we recognize the individual. It may be a small and insignificant thing and yet one that is most expressive of the person's individuality. So in drugs it is not the general effect upon the stomach or bowels or the general debility produced that serve to characterize it as the remedy, but rather the peculiar, characteristic uncommon, prominent symp-

pathogenetic force, in a

symptoms that do

this

toms.

These have also been designated as keynote * symptoms, by Dr. Guernsey, and as guiding symptoms, by Dr. Hering.

From

a physiological point of view they

may

appear

and unimportant, but for purposes of prescribing they are paramount in importance. These characteristic symptoms of drugs may be found in one of trivial

three divisions of

its

pathogenesis.

Either

" While the keynotes, according to Dr. Guernsey, will, in each an unfailing guide, the requisite conditions and corresponding totality of the symptoms in such cases being inevitably present. If this doctrine is true and in practice it has been confirmed by much experience it is so because these so-called keynotes essentially represent a profound dyscrasia of the organic nervous system.', either in such sensations of pain as precede even the first functional derangements, and are intended as premonitory admonitions; or in such sensations as arise in connection with, and in conseqTience of, the initial disorder in these most interior organs of vegetative life. " J. H. P. Frost in Hahnemannian Monthly, Vol. *

instance, form

—

—

II,

page 443.

A

40 1. 2. 3.

COMPEND OF THE

In the locality or tissue or organ affected. In the sensations. In the modalities and concomitants.

These are the three grand divisions around which the symptomatology of drugs can be grouped, or into which they can be divided for practical study. Locality or seat of action. Every drug affects some organ or system of organs or tissue or region more decidedly than others, and there especially or primarily expends its power. This is not a local action merely, but a localization of the drug^s specific nature. It appears, no matter by what avenue the drug is introduced into the body. A drug may come into direct contact with the blood, and thereby with every part of the organism, and yet only certain tissues or organs will be affected by it— that is, only these tissues or organs will react against the foreign element. This specific localization, or specificity of seat of a drug, is tive affinity,

by which

it

known

as its elec-

preferably chooses certain

tissues or organs, to manifest its action.

cells,

In a general

way, we see that Belladonna affects principally the brain as its arena for action, and this organ, therefore, has a preferred relationship to Belladonna. So, in the

same way, Aconite

affects the heart, Ergot the uterus, Bryonia the serous membranes, Podophyllum the duo-

denum, Rhus the skin; Tellurium, the tympanum; Glonoin the vaso-motor centre in the brain; Phosphor, the periosteum.

This elective affinity cannot be explained, but

it

ex-

was recognized even before Hahnemann and homoeopathic provings, and has been made the foundation of a system of practice by Rademacher, a German physician and contemporary of Hahnemann, who himists.

It

self traces

the thought to Paracelsus.

AVhile each drug has a preferred locality, based on

Peinciples of Homceopathy. its elective affinity, still it

the whole organism physically,

—

is

— the

must not be forgotten that whole man, mentally and This

affected.

41

so,

is

because the var-

and organs are not independent instruments, but wonderfully bound together by nerves and blood vessels, and parts most remote are in direct nerve communication with each other. Diseases are produced and continued along these lines of network, when once they have found a foothold, and drugs act in a similar manner along these tracks. We ought to get a mental picture of a drug as a whole the drug personified, and thus the typical patient corresponding Such study gives a reality and practical to the drug. ious functions

—

utility to the

Materia Medica.

Sensations, or kind of Action.

marked

While the

special

about the pathogenetic properties of drugs, the special kind of action is

seat of action is the first

the second fact.

and modalities

This

may

fact

be seen in the sensations

Thus the burning pains of Camphor and Veratrum, the

of a drug.

Arsenic, the coldness of

sticking pains of Bryonia, the stinging pains of

Apis

and Theridion, the plug sensations of Anacardium, the soreness of Arnica and Hamamelis, are all characteristic.

Frequently the character of these pains indicates

the seat of the action, and thus points to the elective affinity of the drug, as

the

burning pains in general indicate

mucous membranes;

dull, boring,

gnawing pains,

the bones; sticking, cutting pains, serous membranes; etc.

In

many drugs

these conditions

sive of their special character, that

expect them to be present

may be

so expres-

we nearly always

when they

are the homoeo-

pathically indicated, and, therefore, prove to be the curative remedy.

Such characteristic conditions are

the restlessness and anxiety of Aconite and Arsenic, the chilliness of Pulsatilla, the thirstlessness of Apis, the

— A COMPEND

42

OF THE

dullness and drowsiness of Gelsemium, the hysterial

contradiction of

Aurum,

choly of

symptoms

its

of Ignatia, the

Modalities and Concomitants.

Modalities are con-

ditions influencing or modifying drug action.

phenomena

are the

melan-

etc.

They

circumstances on

of time, place,

which the development and appearance of the symptoms depend. Every drug has its own mode of action, manifests

ing

it

itself in

a

way

from every other.

peculiar to

itself,

acts best

It

distinguish-

under certain

and mental constitutions, which present, therefore, the most favorable ground and environment for the full and free manifestation of

conditions, in certain bodily

the drug's individuality. in certain conditions of

needs, in short, for

environment, enable

it

its

Just as a plant thrives best soil,

climate, elevation, etc.

perfect development, a suitable

— so a drug

must be similarly situated and fully. It is

to express itself clearly

to of

the greatest importance in drug proving, as well as in prescribing homoeopathically,

method its

in

to

note

the

peculiar

which a drug invades the animal economy,

aggravations and ameliorations, the times of the

day, and conditions of the weather,

when

the action

is

most pronounced. For instance, the marked increase of pain on motion of Bryonia, the relief of headache by wrapping head up warmly of Silica, the marked preference of the left side of the body of Lachesis, the aggravation of all the symptoms from 4 to 8 p. m. of Lycopodium, the relief by heat of Arsenic, the aggravation of damp weather of Dulcamara, are characteristic conditions of great value, clearly expressing the pecu-

drugs and are paramount in estimating their place in the symptomatology. But, while they hold this important place, they must not be studied independently of the whole of a drug's action. liar genius of these

Principles of Homceopathy. needed for their interpretation.

for this is

43 It is a fact

that the study of characteristics alone leads quickly to practical results,

in

knowledge

of

but also to permanent mediocrity

drug action.

Boeiiiiighaiisen's

method of interpreting symp-

tomatology consists essentially in the selection from the symptoms of the patient, and from those of the drug, of their elements, rather than try to obtain the complete symptom, which latter consists of a seat or location^ a sensation and a modality; but, in the present incomplete state of our Materia Medica, most of the

symptoms

are fragmentary,

in the above sense.

By

and but few

are complete

the use of Boeninghausen's

fragmentary symptoms are supplemented by clinical observation of the curative effects. A remedy is selected for a case that is found to possess in its symptomatology marked action (1) in a certain location; (2) to correspond with sensation, and (3) possess the same modality; without necessarily having in the proving produced the very symptom resulting from the

method, these

It is to be inferred that a full proving would have it, however. For instance, a patient with a bearing pain in the left hip, relieved by motion, greatly worse in the afternoon, would receive Lycopodium, not because Lycopodium has so far produced in the healthy such a symptom, but because, from the study of its

combination.

symptoms find that

that

its

as recorded in the Materia Medica,

it affects

the

left

we do

hip prominently (locality);

pains, in various parts of the body, are "tear-

and that its general symptoms are by motion and aggravated in the afternoon The only justification for such analysis (modality.) and synthesis of symptoms is the imperfection and limitation of our provings and especially the success following the application of the newly constructed ing" (sensation); relieved

— A

44

COMPEND OF THE

symptom, out of these elements, in removing similar symptoms in the patient, hence in curing, and the reasonableness of the presumption that future, complete provings will develop the missing links of the It is in entire harcomplete symptom of the drug. mony with the fact that every genuine symptom has these three factors locality, sensation, and modality

—

these,

when combined,

It is not

constitute a perfect

symptom.

usual to get these, in any one symptom, from

any one prover, but they may be found scattered through the various provings; hence the legitimacy of Boeninghausen's method. Read

in this connection:

T, F. Allen's paper before the World's Medical Congress at Chicago, 1893, entitled,

"The

Selection of the Homoeopathic Eemedy,

especially in regard to Boeninghausen's

Method," published, with

discussions, in North American Journal of Hommopathy, August, 1893.

For further practical illustration

of the use of

Boeninghausen's

method see an instructive, analytical report of a case of "Progressive Muscular Atrophy Cured with Phosphorus," by T. F. Allen, reported in Ilahnemannian Advocate, July

15, 1896.

For further study, consult

"Organon,"

§$ 153, 164, 165, 178.

Also, the preface to Hering's "Guiding

Symptoms," Vol.

I.

"Hirschel's Rules and Examples for the Study of Pharmacody-

namics," Thos, H. Hayle.

a

Principles of Homceopathy.

45

CHAPTER VI. DRUG RELATIONSHIP. The study

of

drug pathogenesy, and

application

its

by the recognition of different relationships that drugs occupy to each other. Among these, the most apparent, but of to the treatment of disease, is furthered

least practical value, therapeutically, is the

Family

relation, or collateral, side relation (con-

geners), such as belong to the same, or allied botanical

family, or chemical group; thus similarity in origin

is

In a very broad way, drugs may be divided, according as they belong, to one of the three kingdoms of nature, thus drugs from the animal kingdom, vegetable or mineral. It is not difficult to note certain great features, common to drugs, belonging to one

its

claim.

kingdom; but similarity different

members

of effects is

more marked as

of a botanical family, or

group, are examined.

chemical

Thus the Ranunculacese family,

comprising drugs like Aconite, Pulsatilla, Cimicifuga, etc.,

show certain symptoms

of

marked similarity

family likeness not to be mistaken. so great as to of Ignatia

seem

identical.

This

is

—

soiiietimes

For instance, in the case

and Nux vomica. Both come from the same

order of plants, both contain Strychnia, to the pres-

ence of which, undoubtedly, this similarity in effect Now, when this similarity apcan be attributed. proaches identity of effects, it has been found that they do not follow each other well. For instance, in a given case of stomach disorder, indicating Nux vomica, it is injudicious practice to follow this by Ignatia, on account of its too close resemblance to the symptoms of the former remedy, the results being unfavorable, dis>

46

A COMPEND

,

OF THE

turbing rather the normal evolution of the curative influence.

Antidotal Relation.

Certain drugs antidote each

other therapeutically, because they effects locally in certain

produce similar

parts of the organism or on

and functions or generally throughout The antidotal relation is based therefore on similarity and is operative according to the law of cure, similia similibus; and again the anticertain tissues

their action as a whole.

dotal relationship between drugs

may

be general or

partial, according as the similarity in their action is

general or confined to certain parts only.

phor antidotes the

effects of

mucous membrane

these concern the tract,

by

Thus cam-

cantharis only so far as

while the same tissue elsewhere

of is

the urinary

not antidoted

it.

Such antidotal relation is of use in practice, by which we can modify or annul an undesirable action of a drug, for instance, Anacardium bears an antidotal relation to Rhus, especially in its action on the skin, Hepar to Mercury, Chamomilla to Coffea and Pulsa-

An

tilla, etc.

tionship

is

interesting phase of the antidotal rela-

the mutual antidotal or at least modifying

power of the higher and the lower attenuations of the same drug, as well as the antidotal relationship between the chronic effects of the crude drug and the attenuated drug, as

is

seen in treating chronic tobacco poisoning

with Tabacum high. This holds true at times in acute conditions as has been frequently verified in poisoning with Rhus where a high attenuation will prove the quickest antidote.

Concordant or Compatible Relationship.

mann

first

made

Hahne-

the valuable, practical observation

when they are given There seems to be an afiinity be-

that certain remedies act better in a certain series.

Principles of Homceopathy.

47

tween them. They are not of the same natural family, but of wholly dissimilar origin; but they have marked Such remedies may follow each similarities in action. other well; they point to a deeper and closer relationship than that of mere family, or similarity in origin.

Such relationship exists, for example, between China and Calcarea, Pulsatilla and Sepia, Belladonna and Mercurius, Nitric acid and Thuja, Mercurius and Sulphur,

etc.

Complementary Relation exists between drugs that complete a cure that is begun by another and carried to a certain point, where it is taken up by another drug and completed. If a remedy is allowed its full time of action, it will often lead up to a complementary remedy that is, the symptoms remaining un-

—

touched, or brought to the surface, will often suggest a drug

known

to be

complementary

to the

one given.

This useful relationship of certain group of drugs is of great service in the treatment especially of chronic dis-

Such relationship exists between Belladonna and Calcarea; Apis and Natrum muriaticum; Aconitum and Sulphur; Chamomilla and Magnesia phosphorica; Thuja and Silica.

eases.

Inimical relation is the very opposite of the concordant and complementary. There seems to be a lack of harmony between certain drugs, as is also seen in certain chemical affinities. This may be so marked that when following each other in the treatment of a case, disturbance shows itself and the cure is interfered with and the whole case mixed up. Such a relation seems to exist between Apis and Rhus, between Causticum and Phosphorus; Mercurius and Silica; Sepia and Lachesis and others. each other.

Do

not give these remedies after

It is well to note these inexplicable condi-

tions of drug action, based

on friendly or

inimical

A COMPEND

48

OF THE

relationship. If it be remembered that drugs are embodied forces, distinct entities with distinct powers to modify human life as manifested in functional activity and organic changes we can readily see that certain

can work advantageously side by side; their joint thus following each other, being greater than either one singly; and again certain others cannot do so, but mere contact or propinquity upsetting the

forces

result,

orderly progress of the case. For further study see Boeninghausen, "The Sides and Drug Afi&nities." Mohr, "The Inimical Relationship

of

of the

Drugs."

Bering's contributions in the Archiv.

"Farrington's Clinical Materia Medica."

Lecture

I.

Body

—

Principles of Homceopathy.

CHAPTER

49

VII.

THE APPLICATION OF HOMCEOPATHY. Homceopathy

consists essentially in the application

Drug selection alone constiHomoeopathy. The homoeopathic physician has deal with two sets of phenomena in treating disease.

of the principle of similars.

tutes to

On

the one

hand the

patient, with a certain train of

morbid symptoms;

on the other, similar symptoms known to be produced in the healthy by some drug.

The

closer this correspondence in its essential features,

more certain and speedy the cure, on the principle that two like and similar forces may neutralize each the

This necessitates consideration of

other.

The examination of the patient, and the record of his symptoms. 2. The selection of the remedy corresponding to this totality of symptoms. 3. The administration of the single remedy. 4. The dose and its repetition. 1.

The Examination of the the homoeopathic prescriber

Patient. is

The

first

duty of

clearly to understand the

nature of the disturbed functions of the patient, to get at the full facts of the case so far as they are expressed

by symptoms. The examination that elicits them must be thorough and complete, and will yield satisfactory results according to the perfection of the physician's general medical knowledge.

His knowledge of anatomy abnormal conditions of organs; physiology will show abnormal performance of function; chemistry, microscopy, etc., will discover morbid secretions and excretions, etc. He makes use of all instruments that modern science places at his disposal, will enable

4

him

to detect

A COMPEND

50

from the

clinical

OF THE

thermometer

to the stethoscope,

and

instruments of precision of modern diagnostic All the results thereby attained furnish him with

all other skill.

the objective phenomena which the patient presents.

These go far to establish the diagnosis cal condition.

The

totality of

of the pathologi-

symptoms

ascertainable,

with the help of our numerous diagnostic aids, furnishes a much more complete picture, analytically, than was possible in

had

Hahnemann's

to be placed

latter are still of

time,

when

the

main

reliance

on the subjective symptoms. These paramount importance in deciding

between drugs that are capable of producing a similar change in the organism; they thus serve to determine the one most nearly indicated remedy from among a group of more or less related remedies. The totality of the symptoms must he the sole indication to

determine the choice of a curative remedy. this point is expressed in

Hahnemann's teaching on §

18 of the Organon, as follows: " It

then unquestionably true that, besides the symptoms, it is impossible to discover any other manifestation by which diseases could express their need of relief; hence, it undeniably follows that the totality of symptoms observed in each individual is

totality of

case of disease, can be the only indication to guide us in the selection of a remedy."

And, again, in

may

§ 70,

he says:

"All that a physician

regard as curable in diseases, consists entirely in

the complaints of the patient

and the morbid changes

of his health perceptible to the senses it

—that

is

to say,

symptoms through demand for the appro-

consists entirely in the totality of

which the disease expresses its priate remedy; while, on the other hand, every fictitious or obscure, internal cause and condition, or imaginary, material, morbific

treatment."

matter are not objects

of

Principles of Homceopathy.

The

totality of the

symptoms

51

consists in the sys-

tematic ascertaining of all the symptomatic facts nec-

The totality symptoms includes every change of state of body and mind that we can discover or have observed, or

essary to determine the curative remedy. of

that has been reported to the physician; thus, every

deviation from health.

symptom

It includes

every subjective

that the patient can describe correctly and

every objective

symptom

the physician can discover

by

diagnostic instruments.

his senses, aided

examining the

all

patient,

a

definite,

systematic

by

In plan

The regional plan, the Hahnemannian Schema form, is perhaps the best, as it folshould be followed.

lows a natural, anatomical arrangement.

Be patient in symptoms, especially in chronic diseases. a great difference between patients; some can-

Special Precautions to be Observed. getting at the

There

is

not, others will not, give

much

aid

in.

analyzing their

some are morbidly desirous of imparting symptoms and will perhaps, unconsciously, warp their statement by exaggeration. case;

Do

not interrupt the patient in his

first recital

too

he wanders off. When he has finished, cross-examine him, by careful questioning, to supply any deficiencies. Avoid asking leading questions, as far as possible,

much; lead him

on,

if

and not

so that the patient must answer yes or no. Accept no diagnostic suggestions, or pathological theories, or former opinions of other physicians, as

these can be no guide for the selection of a curative

remedy.

Be sure and

get the modalities, especially the influ-

ence of the times of day, weather, season, position of body, exercise, sleep, etc.

Pay special attention to the mental and his intellectual functions.

state of the patient

A

52

COMPEND OF THE

Take the apparent, immediate cause into special account;

this

is

of his sickness

often of importance for

selecting the remedy, even long afterwards.

In chronic diseases, especially, investigation should be extended to the family history of the patient; heredity is a potent factor in determining disease.

The history

of the patient's previous

diseases, par-

any kind that may have been treated with strong local remedies and so suppressed; also, as to all forms of local treatment generally, and ticularly eruptions of

the patient's medical habits, the use of patent medi-

mineral waters,

cines, purgatives,

etc.

Notice any alternation of groups of symptoms, such as gastric

and rheumatic symptoms, rheumatic and and skin affections, etc.

catarrhal, bronchial

Remember

that certain bodily conditions have cer-

tain mental states

and heart

iety

— depression

and constipation, anxand consump-

affections, hopefulness

tion, etc.

Remember

that,

are present in

when

a certain train of

symptoms

some one organ or apparatus

of the

body, there are almost sure to be present certain other symptoms, objective and subjective, in other organs often,

anatomically, quite remote, and of which the

patient probably called to

is

hardly aw^are until his attention

them by the physician.*

For instance,

is

cer-

tain pains in the head co-exist with certain uterine

anomalies of vision, etc. Write down the record of the symptoms, beginning a new line with every symptom. This will greatly affections, or

facilitate

study and reference to allied remedies.

Subjective

symptoms

tient of his feelings as tions.

*

The

are a description

by the pa-

him

— his sensa-

they appear

ability to express

Dunham.

to

and describe sensations

Principles of Homceopathy.

53

is not common to all patients; and hence, subjective symptoms must always be interpreted by the physician The patient may deceive his physito a large extent.

cian in stating them, as

is

hysterical subjects, or he

may

frequently the case with

not be able to describe

•them accurately enough to be utilized, as in the case of

young children. Objective

symptoms

most import-

are, as a rule, the

They are all such as the physician can ascertain by means of his senses, aided and unaided. In many phases of disease, and with children and

ant.

frequently in old people, where organic changes can go

on

to

an alarming extent without very marked, sub-

symptoms

disturbance, objective

jective

are all

practically have on which to base a prescription.

mental

diseases, objective

ant for purposes Objective

symptoms

In

are most import-

of prescribing.

symptoms

are of special value

occur during sleep, as then the system Objective

we

symptoms that

of the disease, or of

is

when they

relaxed.

are not specially diagnostic

some pathological

state,

when

pres-

important for purposes of prescribing. On the other hand, objective symptoms that are diagnostic of ent, are

certain

pathological, states,

so-called

pathognomonic

symptoms^ are of great importance in guiding to a certain class of remedies and excluding other groups, even

though such

The

may seem

superficially indicated.

Totality in Acute Diseases.

of acute diseases,

much

In the treatment

of this investigation is neces-

sarily dispensed with, the physician learns to use his

eyes and other senses intuitively of certain characteristic

known

and thus

to get hold

conditions quickly that are

to correspond to certain remedies.

conditions come to his aid here for rapid successful prescribing.

Epidemic

and usually

A COMPEND

54

The

Collective

OF THE

Totality of Epidemic

During the prevalence grippe, eruptive diseases,

Diseases.

epidemic diseases,

of

etc., it is

colds,

often the case that

two or three remedies cover the field. It is needless to go into every detail of the symptomatology, since the epidemic remedies, when found, correspond to the lective totality of

numerous

col-

and types of the epicase of an epidemic disease

cases

demic disease; each single

presenting only a partial picture of the true totality of the epidemic.

Interpretation of the Totality. Having taken a and thereby obtained the totality

full stock of the case

symptoms, before prescribing the homoeopathically and saniOften a change in the mode of life or tary errors. abstinence from some hurtful article of diet will be all that is necessary. But after these things have been attended to, whatever symptoms remain will call for of

indicated remedy, correct all hygienic, dietetic

medical treatment. Having obtained a record of the totality of symptoms, a winnowing process must be instituted, by eli-

minating the general symptoms and interpreting the totality according to the relative value of the

symp-

toms, and thus individualize the case under treathient. In §83, Hahnemann says: " Individualization in the investigation of a case of disease, demands, on the part of the physician, principally

unbiased judgment and and fidelity in noting

sound

sense, attentive observation

down

the image of the disease."

rule here

is

Hahnemann's first must be the drug. § 153. The

that the characteristics of the case

similar to the characteristics of

more prominent, uncommon and peculiar features of the case are specially and almost exclusively considered and noted, for these, in particular, should bear the closest similitude

to the

symptoms of

the desired medicine,

if

that

Principles of Homceopathy. is to

By

this individualization,

eliminate the general

symptoms common to and present to view the

accomplish the cure.

then,

we

55

similar pathological conditions,

individual patient as the pathological process affects him.

The morbid

more

or less with the inherent weaknesses

forces of the disease unite themselves

and

disease

and symp-

tendencies, hereditary or acquired, of the individual

give us his peculiar

and therefore

characteristic

toms.

Characteristic or Peculiar

Symptoms. Hahnemann

"more striking, singular and uncommon, peculiar signs and symptoms of a case of disease" which are chiefly to be kept in view. These symptoms of themselves may be of no special value, but become valuable or characteristic by their conditions of aggravation or amelioration, their concomTransient odd and peculiar sympitants or locality. toms are however not so important as such as affect the

calls especial attention to the

patient's general condition, hence the modalities, con-

ditions of aggravation

and amelioration

cold, weather, position, times of day, etc

The modalities of a drug are nic symptoms of the Materia Medica. portant.

Mental symptoms

of

effects of heat, ,

the

are most im-

pathognomo-

drugs are most important, and

are a very pronounced feature in the pathogenesis of

Notice the mental state of the patient

certain drugs.

particularly;

does he suffer patiently or otherwise.

They are also of great importance prognostically; improvement in the mental condition often precedes bodily and general improvement. First, or Oldest,

Symptoms.

chronic diseases, the

from health are

first

In the treatment of

indications of a departure

of the greatest value, particularly those occurring before there was any treatment. After a

A

56

remedy has been

COMPEND OF THE

given,

and old symptoms reappear in it is an indicaprogressing favorably, and no

the inverse order of their development, tion that the cure

is

other medicine should be given.

So, also, in acute

symptoms is great. In diphthe side upon which it begins may

diseases, the value of first

theria for instance,

decide the choice of the remedy.*

Etiological Factors.

As a further aid in arriving symptoms, the immediate

at a utilizable totality of

cause of the present illness,

determinable, or

if

its

exciting factor, will be a great aid in the selection of

the remedy.

Such causes may be remote in time, and

not of any apparent connection with the present

This

Hahnemann

lows:

"

The physician, in

from the knowledge ble

state.

also teaches in § 5, Organon, as fol-

of facts

curing, derives

assistance

concerning the most proba-

cause of acute disease, as well as from the most sig-

nificant points in the entire history of a case of chronic disease; aided

by such knowledge he

is

enabled to dis-

cover the primary cause of the latter, dependent mostly

on a chronic miasm." This gives, on the one hand, an important place to the first, or oldest, symptoms and to causes however remote; and, on the other, it elevates to

commandhig importance, signs

of constitutional defects,

the underlying psoric conditions.

Unquestionably, such frequently modify and relegate to comparative insignificance

symptoms

of acute

disorder,

and favor

the selection of a deep-acting, anti-psoric remedy even in acute diseases.

by

its

Such a

selection

would be

justified

relationship to a truer similarity than would be

expressed by an uninterpreted totality of symptoms.

Late Symptoms.

The more

recent

symptoms

are

valuable as being the latest expression of the diseased * S.

Kimball, in Homceopathic Physician, June, 1895.

Principles of Homceopathy. condition, is

57

and must be covered by the remedy.

especially true in acute diseases.

This

is

so

This

when

another remedy is chosen; the last symptoms that appear must be the guide to it. Again, if a patient has been drugged by palliative medication, we must direct

our antidotes principally against the drugs given last for instance, against Quinine, Pulsatilla, Ipecac, etc.;

—

against Iodine, Hepar; against Chloroform, Hyoscyam,

But

etc. it is

this rule

should not be applied too rigorously;

best to give no medicine at all for a time.

Functional symptoms of an affected organ are of less value than symptoms which occur in other parts during the exercise, of the function of that organ. Burning pain in the urethra, during or after micturi-

much

tion, is of little value in gonorrhoea, for it is usually

present; but pain in the testicles, thighs, or

abdomen

during or after micturition, or symptoms of some other part not immediately concerned in that function, would be more important. So, also, pain in the stomach after eating, in indigestion, is not of as much value as vertigo or headache after eating would be in the

same eral

attack.

symptoms that affect the genmore value than those that are

Therefore,

organism are

of

functionally related to the organ affected.*

A knowledge of the patholNeed of Pathology. of disease (not mere passing, pathological theories, against which Hahnemann so justly protested,) is necessary to interpret the symptomatology obtained and prescribe the truly indicated remedy, and not merely one externally homoeopathic. The true meaning of any symptom is reached not by considering it alone, but by viewing it in relation to all the rest, and thus placing it in its proper relative position. We must ogy

* S.

Kimball.

A COMPEND

58

OF THE

symptoms in perspective. The natural must be learned, as well as their stages and characteristic signs accompanying

learn to view

history of diseases different

them.

The use is

of

pathology in interpreting the symptoms

seen in the treatment of a case of typhoid fever,

where the

fever, restlessness, etc.,

Aconite as a remedy; but a

might

call to

mind

examination would show this to be but a partial and apparent homoeopathic relationship. Pathology would interpret the fever and restlessness of the typhoid patient and associate them with the coming prostration, the septic condition, the asthenia conditions wholly foreign to Aconite, which can deal only with sthenic inflammalittle closer

—

tions

and healthy

blood.

Some symptoms are primary, others reflex. After an organic disease has become established, secondary modifications of health take place, which do not offer valuable symptoms for purposes of prescribing the Really valuable guiding symptoms, curative remedy. if

found at

all,

will be in the earlier state of the patient

before the organic

changes have taken place; thus, in

the treatment of an organic kidney disease, a curative

remedy would be more likely to be found in the earlier symptoms that preceded the development of the dropanemia, etc., characteristic of the later stages. Pathology also teaches the important difference between the absolute, pathognomonic symptoms and the sy,

contingent or peculiar symptoms of a given case of disease.

General or absolute symptoms are those which are all patients suffering from the same disease

common to

and they are essential for purposes of diagnosis. Thus the fever, sore throat and rash are general or absolute

symptoms

of Scarlatina, while again, the fever, cough.

59

Principles of Homceopathy. physical signs and bloody sputa are absolute of

symptoms

Pneumonia.

Contingent or peculiar symptoms are those which vary with the individual and are not essentially pathognomonic of the disease^ but always of the individual' patient.

sympsymptoms, and hence in selecting the remedy. Hence the rule: the value of a symptom for purposes of

They

toms most essential

are therefore the characteristic

of the patient's totality of

The greater

diagnosis, the less

its

value for the selection of the homoeo-

pathic remedy and vice versa. The seemingly unimportant, peculiar, contingent symp-

toms of the patient, though valueless for purposes of diagnosis, are the chief guiding symptoms for the selection of the homoeopathic remedy.

Totality of quality rather than of quantity,

is

the

In any case of disease it is necessary to discover in what way, that is, by what peculiar, symptoms, does one case of illness differ

basis for homoeopathic prescribing.

from every other or

rheumatism

same disease. How does this rheumatism differ from the typhoid

of the

patient's typhoid or of

every other patient.

This special

totality of quality, or of characteristics will unerringly

lead to the curative homoeopathic remedy.

This

is

the

Hahnemannian Similarity. It exists between the characteristic symptoms of the patient and the characteristic symptoms of the drug, and we must individualize each case in order to arrive at this desirable goal, for the

This differs selection of the hemoeopathic remedy. from the mere Pathological Similarity which consists in matching diseased conditions or pathological processes It adapts the as determined by pathological anatomy. remedy to a disease rather than to the individual patient. Thus, in the treatment of pneumonia, a remedy would be given that actually produces lesions similar

A COMPEND

60

OF THE

to the pneumonic process. Phosphorus has actually produced hepatization of the lungs in animals poisoned by it; hence, it should be the curative similar, as it is undoubtedly the pathological similar. So Arsenic pro-

duces a gastro-enteritis and ultimate lesions just like and should, therefore, be the curative remedy

cholera,

in this disease, since

it

is

the pathological similar.

But experience denies this deduction. To be curative, a remedy must correspond to the characteristic symptoms, whether these are based upon the ultimate pathologico-anatomical lesion or not.

Unquestionably, the is one of the most important factors in the totality, but not the determining one in every case. similarity in pathological process or lesion

Examples of pathological similarities between disand drugs. The gastro-enteritis and paralysis of

eases

Arsenic; epileptiform convulsions of Hydrocyanic acid; broncho-pneumonia of Tartar emetic; anaemia of Argentum; catalepsy of Cannabis indica; tinnitus auri-

um of of

Quinine; Meniere's disease of Salycilic soda; colic

Plumbum; asthma

of Ipecac; tabes of Ergot; fatty

degeneration of Phosphorus; glycosuria of Uranium; meningitis of Belladonna,

etc, etc.

Use of Pathological similarity. Often in the course and in children, where no characteristic symptoms can be obtained, pathological corresof acute diseases,

pondence

may

be the only recourse; but

in the treatment of

method

of

the

most chronic

Hahnemannian

it is

diseases.

otherwise

Here the

similarity yields best

results.

Method of Treating Slight Ailments.

It is a

take to prescribe remedies for every slight ailment.

misIt

Hahnemann's directions, Organon, "Whenever a patient complains of only a few § 150: insignificant symptoms of recent origin, the physician is

best

to follow

Principles of Homceopathy.

61

is not to regard them as a disease requiring serious A slight change of diet and habits of medical aid.

living generally suffices to

remove

so slight

an indispo-

sition.

Absence of Characteristic Syinptoms in the ToThere are cases where it is almost impossible to obtain any very characteristic symptoms; these are Or there may be only one difficult to handle. § 165. or two prominent symptoms, which may obscure the tality.

remaining features

of the case, so-called

Partial or One-sided Diseases. The best rule is to be most painstaking in eliciting symptoms, and then

make

the best uses of the few

symptoms

guides in the selection of the remedy.

to serve as

Although the

remedy may be but imperfectly adapted, it will serve symptoms belong-

the purpose of bringing to light the

ing to the disease, thus facilitating a choice of the next

Organon, §§ 173-184. Diagnostic symptoms although of least importance for selecting the remedy, may be all we have in a given case for guidance. If so, the remedy corresponding to them can be chosen by paying special attention to their modaliremedy.

of a disease,

ities,

i.

e.j

conditions of

aggravation, concomitants,

For instance, in dysentery, the tenesmus is an important, diagnostic symptom, but no guiding one to any remedy, since many medicines have this general symptom; but if attended with any modalities or concomitants, it may become a leading indication; for instance, Nux vom., the tenesmus and pain in the back etc.

cease with the stool; in Mercurius, they continue after it.

In this way a general symptom

may become

a

characteristic one, leading to the choice of the curative

drug. For further study consult: •'Organon,

'

^

153-173.

A COMPEND

62 '*

The

Relative Value of

OF THE

Symptoms," by

in Homceopathic Physician, June, 1895. **

The Examination

scription,"

A

S.

A. Kimball, M.D.,

very valuable essay.

Homceopathic PreTransactions Int. Homceopathic

of the Patient for a

by P. P. Wells, M.D.

Association, 1888, page 18.

of

"The Genus Epidermicus, " by A. McNeil, M.D. Transactions Hahnemann Association, 1889. "The Selection of the Homoeopathic Eemedy," by T. F.

Allen,

M.D.

Eead before World's Medical Congress

in Chicago,

1893; published in North American Journal of Homoeopathy, August, 1893.

"The

First Prescription,"

by O. M. Drake, M.D., in Homeeo-

pathic Physician, January, 1895.

"Dudgeon's Lectures on Homoeopathy." Lecture XI: On the Remedy. This gives an account of the different views held by the representative older disciples of Hahnemann, and is very interesting from an historical point of view. Selection of the

"The

Totality of Symptoms."

ican Institute of Homoeopathy, by

A paper read before the AmerWm. Boericke, M.D. Pub-

lished in the Hahnemannian Advocate, August, 1896.

Principles of Homceopathy.

CHAPTER

63

VIII.

THE SIMILIMUM. The indicated remedy

any case

in

the remedy

is

that corresponds to the totality of symptoms, as interpreted according to the relative rank of symptoms, and

not one covering, merely some isolated characteristic or key-note symptom, or, on the other hand, one that corresponds merely to the pathological lesion. The objections to the key-note system of selecting the

remedy are its disregard for the fall study of the remedy and elevation, instead of some minor often clinical symptom, yielding at best only palliative while the objection to the pathological basis is incompleteness, being only a partial picture of the

results, its

totality of

symptoms and

therefore

an unreliable basis

for curative prescribing.

The similimum is the most similar remedy corresponding to a case, one covering the true totality of symptoms, and when found, is always curative, and in incurable cases, it is the best possible palliative remedy. Unfortunately, in the present state of our Materia Medica, and other limitations of our art, the Similimum in any case of illness, is not always discoverable. Nevertheless, a cure

as

would be

it

mum

if

is

possible, albeit, not so

prompt

the chosen remedy were the Simili-

While this is the ideal to be sought, must more frequently be satisfied with of a mere similar instead. Fortunately,

to the case.

the prescriber the selection

the very conception of similarity ness

and does not express an

parative always, thus a drug

according to the nearness of totality of

symptoms.

is

one of

relative near-

absolute relation; is

its

more or

it is

com-

less similar

correspondence to the

Moreover, the experience and

A

64

COMPEND OF THE

practice of the homoeopathic school teaches that anyone of several more or less similar remedies may be used with alike good results, that is, it may be sufficiently similar to bring about nature's reaction. The merely similar remedy, though falling short of the dignity of the Similimum is not thereby removed from capacity of curative service, but the curative response is not as direct and prompt as results from the administration of the similimum which must ever be, in every homoeopathic prescription, the ideal to be

sought.

The

Similimum involves its adminisand without admixture of any other

selection of the

tration

singly

medicinal substance.

The

single

remedy

similar remedy.

is

the necessary corollary to the

It is to

be given alone, not alternated

mixed with any other*. Only then can its pure be evolved and estimated, and the single remedy must be given in the smallest dose that will bring about nature's reaction. The single remedy does not mean a simple remedy. All chemical salts, which are composite substances, the juice of plants, like Opium, a most marvelously compounded substance, are all single remedies and used as such in homoeopathy. Any single substance that has been proved upon the healthy, as an entity and whose pathogenesis is known, can be administered; but it must be given unmixed with any other medicinal substance, so as to obtain its own peculiar drug force unmodified by any other. or

effects

It is the similar relationship alone that constitutes

the homoeopathicity. *

As

early as 1797,

The

size of the dose

Hahnemann

has com-

wrote, in Hufeland's Journal,

that for several years he had never administered anything but the single

remedy

action of the

and never repeated the dose until the had expired.

at a time, first

—

Principles of Homoeopathy. paratively

ence

may

little to

indicate

do with It

it.

form, wholly unprepared

except so far as experi-

it,

may

be given in a crude

by the pharmacist's

in material dosage, provided

it

and tangible

its

particles.

skill,

or

does not produce tem-

porary aggravation of the symptoms; or ministered stripped of all ible

65

it

may

be ad-

apparent material, visExperience alone can

teach which will bring about the best results in

any

given case.

Alternation or rotation of remedies is reprehensible it leads away from accurate and definite knowledge of drug effects, and sooner or later leads to polypharmacy, which is the most slovenly of all pracSince we have no provings of combination of tice. practice, since

would be impossible

such combiIn regard to alterna'' Some homoeopathists have tion, Hahnemann says made the experiment in cases where they deemed one remedy suitable for one portion of symptoms of a case of disease, and a second for another portion, of administering both remedies at once, or almost at once; but I earnestly deprecate such hazardous experiments, that can never be necessary, though they sometimes seem Note to § 272, Organon. to be of use." drugs,

it

to prescribe

nations with scientific accuracy. :

For further study, read "Organon," $$272-275.

Dunham: "Science of Therapeutics — Alternation of Remedies." Edmund Capper: "The Method of Hahnemann and the Homoeopathy of To-day," in Journal of British Homoeopathic

Society,

Jan-

uary, 1895.

Jones:

"The

"The Ground's

Single

Joslin:

of a

Homoeopath's Faith."

Lecture 2:

Remedy."

"The

Principles of

Homoeopathy

— The

Single

Rem-

edy."

Eleanor F. Martin, M.D.:

"The

Single

Remedy

vs.

Alterna-

tion," in Pacific Coast Journal of Homoeopathy, October, 1894.

5

A

66

COMPEND OF THE

CHAPTER IX. THE SECOND PRESCRIPTION. In the treatment of chronic diseases, Hahnemann's symptoms and arrange them according to the rules given, is an absolute neces-

instructions to write out the

accuracy of knowledge of the possible

attain

sity to

and the selection of the most similar This procedure ensures also a ready selection

indicated drugs

remedy.

of the second prescription, since the record will all of the

course to be pursued.

the

first

The

prescriber's attitude after

prescription, in the treatment of chronic dis-

eases especially, ought to be passive.

foremost rule

The

answer

necessary questions and determine the right

is to

selected homoeopathic

the vital forces to reaction,

No further

The

first

and

wait and watch further developments.

interference

remedy simply stimulates and we must await results. is

called for

when any one

of the following conditions presents itself: 1.

Short aggravation of the

curative effect of the remedy.

unless the

aggravation

state of the patient i. e.,

is

Symptoms.

Do

This

is

a

not interfere with

it

continues

and

the general

worse, in which case an antidote,

a homoeopathic remedy for the latest

symptoms

is

Usually on^ dose of such an antidote is all that is required to modify the condition, and then the case can progress without further interruption.

indicated.

2.

General Amelioration of the Symptoms.

It is self

evident that such a condition should not be disturbed

by further medication, on the principle of letting well enough alone. If the disease gets better from within outward, from above downward from more vital to less vital parts, the improvement is permanent and radical.

— Principles of Homceqpathy.

So an improved mental

state is

67

always a favorable in-

dication of a well chosen remedy. 3.

Reappearance of old Symptoms.

The return

of

symptoms, if not too severe, indicates a curative action of the remedy administered, if they

some

of the older

appear in the latest

the reverse order of their development,

symptoms disappear

i. e., if

first.

Appearance of new symptoms. If such come on the administration of a remedy, they may be clinical symptoms of the remedy, and if there is at the same time general improvement, they need not be considered, as they will disappear. If they persist, the homoeopathic antidote will soon rectify the passing increase of the morbid phenomena. Under all these conditions, no further medication is required. So long 4.

after

as

improvement is thus progressing, it is folly to change and it is not advisable even to repeat the

the remedy, dose.

Other Favorable Symptoms. a favorable

symptom

if

In acute disease,

it is

the patient falls asleep soon

remedy; also, if he feels generally better, though the local symptoms may not show any improvement. The improvement here is probably largely psychical, and will soon be followed by the necessarily slower improvement on the physical plane. The mental condition and general behavior of the patient, if more tranquil and natural, are among the most certain and intelligible signs of incipient improvement, especially in acute diseases. Should this progressive evolution of the symptoms after taking the

towards health cease,

A further review of the case is

required, and a new be chosen when The mental state shows an embarrassed, help(1) less state instead of the tranquility of improvement.

remedy

is to

A COMPEND

68

When

(2)

no change

of

OF THE

any kind follows the first enough for reaction,

prescription, after waiting long

which

is,

however, a variable matter, according to the

chronicity of the case

and character

the

of

remedy

chosen, the shortest period to be allowed in a chronic

and preferably a longer When new and important symptoms and

disease being one week, (3)

dalities, especially

time.

mo-

old

aggravations that persist characterize ,

the case, proving that the remedy was not homoeopathic

and acted only as a pathogenetic agent in producing new symptoms. This is the danger of selecting a remedy only remotely similar instead of the similimum. The second remedy will often be found a complementary drug of the first. to the case,

Three Precautionary Rules of Hahnemann. The of Homoeopathy, in his work on " The Chronic

author

Diseases," has established three precautionary rules,

which he has impressed in the most urgent manner upon the minds of his disciples, and which no homoeopathic physician can violate without committing the

They are the following: To suppose that the doses which he had recommended for every anti-psoric remedy, and which experience had taught him to be the proper doses, are too greatest faults in practice. 1.

small. 2. 3.

The improper selection of a drug. The too great haste in administering a new

Precautionary Rule No.

1.

— Smallness

of dose.

dose.

The

debates relative to the smallness of doses are far from

The more that has been written on that some years past, the more contradiction has been heaped upon contradiction. What is a truly remarkable circumstance in this discussion a circumstance which is by no means creditable to the oppobeing closed. subject for

—

nents of small doses

—

is

the fact that the

manner

in

Principles of Homceopathy.

69

which Hahnemann gradually arrived at the introduction of the small doses in practice, in consequence of

repeated trials, observations, experience, seems either

have been forgotten or entirely ignored. experience, and nothing else, which led the carefully-observing author of that immortal text-book to that minuteness of doses which has now become an In the second edition of " Chronic object of derision. Diseases," after having spoken of homoeopathic aggrato

It is

vations,

Hahnemann

symptoms of

continues thus:

^^

the disease continue ivith the

If the original

same intensity

in the succeeding days as in the beginning, or if this intenthat, although the remedy magnitude of the dose will make the cure impossible. The remedial agent, by its powerful disproportionate action, not only neutralizes its genuine homoeopathic effects, but established, moreover, in the system, a medicinal disease by the side of the natural disturbance, which is even strengthened by

sity increases, this is

may

a sure sign

be homoeopathic, yet the

the medicine."

That portion

preceding quotation, which is embodies a great truth which has never been denied, which has been abundantly conprinted in

of the

italics,

firmed by the numerous results of the allopathic treat-

ment

of chronic diseases,

and

of attentive

and

is,

therefore, well

worthy

Such

results

serious consideration.

are even witnessed in the comparatively easy treatment

from the abuse secondary syphilis.

of syphilis,

Hahnemann

of

mercury, which

continues afterwards:

effect of too large a

dose

may be

is

then

^'This pernicious

observed already in the

eighteen or twenty days of

its action. In becomes necessary either to give an antidote, or if the antidote should not be known, to administer a very small dose of such antipsoric as corresponds most homoeopathically to the symptoms of both

first sixteen,

such a case

it

A

70

COMPEND OF THE

the natural and the artificial disease. If one antipsoric should not be sufficient, another, of course, ought to be given, after having been selected with the same care."

How its full

little

an excessive dose

curative powers

is

may be

capable of displaying

seen from the following

remarks

of the author of homoeopathy: "The excessive action of the otherwise homoeopathic remedial agent

having been subdued by the proper antidote or by

same agent may then be exhigher potency, and in a more minute dose." But this agent would have no effect, if a first powerful dose of it had not accomplished

antipsoric remedies, the

hibited again, but of a

much

in the beginning all the good that the agent

is

capable

of doing.

Finally,

Hahnemann

"

observes:

Nothing is

lost

by

giving even smaller doses than those which I have in-

The doses can be scarcely too much reduced, effects of the remedy are not disturbed by improper food. The remedial agent will act even in dicated.

provided the

the smallest quantity, provided to all the

symptoms

it

corresponds perfectly

and its action is not The advantage of givthat it is an easy matter to

of the disease,

interfered with improper diet.

ing the smallest dose

is this,

neutralize their effects in case the medicine should not

have been chosen with the necessary exactitude. This being done, a more suitable antipsoric may be administered."

This advice ought to be carefully considered, especi-

by the beginners, together with the warning which has expressed in the preface to his work on " Chronic Diseases." " What would they have risked, if they had first followed my indications and then employed small doses ? The worst which would have befallen them was, that those doses would have been of no avail. It was impossible that they should ally

Hahnemann

Principles of Homceopathy.

71

do any harm. But instead of exhibiting small doses, they employed, from a want of sense and of their own accord, large doses for homoeopathic use, thus exposing the lives of their patients, and arriving at truth by that circuitous route which I had traveled upon before

them with trembling hesitation, but the end of which I had just reached with success. Nevertheless, after having done much mischief, and after having squandered the best period of their lives, they were obliged,

when they were

really desirous of curing a disease, to

method which them a long while ago. *

resort to the only true

ted to

I

had demonstra-

Diet and Regimen during Homoeopathic Treatment. Hahnemann and the early homoeopathists laid great stress on a strict diet; but this is a field that has been greatly neglected in modern times, largely because it was found that the power and efficacy of the well-chosen remedy were able to manifest themselves, notwithstanding great license in diet and hygiene. Nevertheless, a return to tions

may

Hahnemann's

be advisable in

many

cases.

careful restric-

His teachings,

in this regard, are as follows:

"The minuteness

of the dose required in

pathic practice, makes

it

homoeo-

necessary that every other

of medicinal influence that might cause a disturbance should be avoided in the diet and regimen of patients, in order that the highly rarified dose may not

kind

be counteracted, overpowered, or disturbed by extraneous, medicinal influences. In chronic cases, therefore, it is especially

of this

necessary to remove all obstacles

nature with the greatest care, since they exer-

cise a deleterious effect.

Regimen in Acute

'*

Diseases.

the patient usually guides *

him

Here the instinct of and his cravings

aright,

Quoted from Von Boenninghausen.

A

72

COMPEND OF THE

can be judiciously gratified. " The food and drink most commonly craved by patients suffering from acute diseases is generally of a palliative and soothing kind, and not properly of a medicinal nature, but merely adapted to the gratification of a certain longing." "

In acute diseases, the temperature

of the

room and

the quantity of covering should be regulated entirely

according to the wishes of the patient, while every

kind

of

mental exertion and emotional disturbance

is

to be carefully avoided."

For further study, read: " brganon,"

^ 253-263.

"The Second

Prescription," by Dr. J. T. Kent, in Proceed-

ings of the Hahnemannian Association, 1888, page 71. "Practical Hints

W.

on the Management

of

P. Wesselhoeft, M.D., in Transactions of

ciation, 1889,

page

Chronic Cases." by

Hahnemannian Asso-

8.

"Procedure in the Treatment of Inactive, Progressive Chronic Diseases," by T. J. Kent, in Hahnemannian Advocate, July, 1896.

Principles of Homceopathy.

73

CHAPTER X. HAHNEMANN'S NOSOLOGY. The

mann

of

classification

diseases adopted

includes two types, acute

and

by Hahne-

chronic.

§§ 72-82,

Organon.

Acute diseases originate from

defective

errors in diet, physical agents, cold, heat

hygiene,

and other

atmospheric changes, mental and moral influences. Again, telluric and meteoric and bacterial influences give rise to acute diseases, attacking a

individuals, at the

and contagious

same time giving

number

rise to

of

epidemic

Besides these general causes,

diseases.

there are types of acute disease that are transient activities of the hitherto

so

from some cause or It is well to

dormant psoric miasm, rendered other.

bear this possible cause of certain acute

diseases in mind, since corresponding antipsoric remedies

may

possibly

come

into requisition for their cure

or temporary subsidence.

Chronic diseases are such as are produced by infecmiasm, and which the vital powers of the organism, aided by hygienic and dietetic and sanitary measures are not able to extinguish. The chronic miasms giving rise to all forms of chronic disease are psora, syphilis and sycosis. Hahnemann does

tion from a chronic

not classify among these chronic diseases such as result from living under unhygienic and unsanitary influences, or trying mental conditions, errors, dietetic excesses of all kinds, etc. These diseases disappear of themselves by mere change of regimen and surroundings and removing the cause, provided, there is not

A

74

COMPEND OF THE miasms that

present one of the three chronic

are the

real causes of all chronic disease.

Drug

Diseases.

On

the other hand, prolonged drug

use in heroic doses does produce a species of chronic is most difficult to cure, and when such have attained a considerable hold, it would seem as if no remedy could be discovered for their radical cure. * Organon, §§ 74 and 75.

disease that

" It is a matter of regret that

count

among

which are

we

chronic diseases, very

are

still

common

obliged to affections

to be regarded as the result of allopathic

treatment, and the continual use of violent, heroic

medicines in large and increasing doses. Examples of that kind are: the abuse of Calomel, Corrosive sublimate, Mercurial Ointment, Nitrate of Silver, Iodine and its ointments. Opium, Valerian, Quinine, Digitalis, etc., the use of purgatives persisted in for years, etc."

To

which might be added the modern abuse of Coal tar products, patent medicines. Such wanton treatment weakens the organism, abnormally deranged and wholly altered. Irritability and sensibility are increased or decreased, hypertrophy and atrophy, softening and indurations in certain organs and organic Such are some of the results of lesions are produced. nature's efforts to protect the organism against complete destruction by aggressive treatment with pernicious drugs.

The Evolution of Halinemann's Doctrine of Chronic Diseases. After Hahnemann's discovery of the Law of Cure in 1790, he worked incessantly inves* The treatment of drug diseases by the use of the highest potency of the drug producing them is to be tried in these obstinate

chronic affections, dure.

it is

an entirely consistent homoeopathic proce-

—

Principles of Homceopathy.

75

tigating the action of drugs on the healthy,

and prac-

law and by the light and aid the new Materia Medica was able to ticed according to the newly-discovered

The

give.

Law

success of this practical application of the

Cure was striking in the extreme. Especially true was this in the treatment of acute diseases and epidemics. As to chronic diseases, in which allopathic treatment was so often worse than useless, homoeopathy rarely failed to improve or ameliorate the condiBut, though the patients tions in a very short time. were often very much relieved, they were not cured, for their complaints would return more or less by many unfavorable circumstances, such as errors of of

poor hygienic conditions, unfavorable weather,

diet,

mental emotions, etc. Their return, under these circumstances, was generally attended with the appearance of new symptoms, often more troublesome and more difficult of removal than before. Even when the treatment of these chronic diseases was conducted strictly according to the doctrines of the homoeopathic art,

Hahnemann

himself owned that " their commence-

ment was

cheering, their progress less favorable, their "And yet," he adds, " the homoeoissue hopeless." itself is built upon the impregnable and must ever remain so." Whence success, this absolute want of success in

pathic doctrine pillars of truth

this inferior

the

treatment

prolonged

homoeopathy

is

law for healing

If of chronic diseases? based upon a natural law nature's and the conditions for carrying out

—

the law are observed, there ought not to be

— only success. certain patients

Why,

any

failure

then, this failure at times in

and even typical acute

diseases;

why

this almost constant failure in chronic disease?

He

says that, from the year 1816-17, the solution of problem occupied him day and night, and at length he succeeded in solving it. Like all of Hahnethis

A COMPEND

76

mann's work,

it

was the

OF THE

fruit of

long and patient

observation and study and experiment.

Ten years later, in 1827, he was ready to communinew discovery, as he believed this epochmaking theory, to the profession. He summoned to Coethen, where he was then practicing as physician to the reigning prince, two of his most esteemed disciples, Doctors Stapf and Gross, and communicated to them his theory of the origin of chronic diseases and his discovery of a completely new series of medicines for their cure, exhorting them to test the truth of his opinions and discoveries in their own practice. He disclosed for he was this to these two disciples in case his death cate this

then in his seventy^third year

— should

—

have occurred

before the publication of his book on the subject. This remarkable book, entitled " The Chronic Diseases,

Their Peculiar Nature and Homoeopathic Treatment," duly appeared the next year, 1828. With the publication of this book, supplementing the Organon, the high-

water mark of medical philosophy was reached. A few generations hence this will be generally acknowledged.

Cause of Recurrence of Chronic Diseases.

His researches and in his work, led

him

reflections,

Hahnemann

tells

us

to the conclusion that the cause of

the constant recurrence of chronic diseases after their

apparent or partial removal by the homoeopathic remand their recurrence with new and grave symptoms, was that the symptoms manifesting themselves edy,

any one time were only a portion of the deeply-seated fundamental malady, whose great extent was shown by the new symptoms that appeared from time to time. He believed it to be a chronic miasm, which the body could not throw off spontaneously and unaided, not by careful diet or regimen, but that it rather increased in intensity and extent from year to year. at

Principles of Homceopathy.

"The most robust life,

and the

constitution, the

77

best regulated

greatest energy of the vital powers, are

insufficient to extinguish

them."

The Skin Phase of Chronic

§ 78,

Organon.

Diseases.

His further research showed that the obstacle to the cure seemed to lie in a previous scabious eruption, which the patient frequently acknowledged having had, and from which he often dated all his sufferings. He believed that chronic diseases occurred on the suppression artificially, or disappearance from any cause of a scabious, itching, eruption from the skin in otherwise healthy persons. Itch, in Hahnemann's time, was a term which covered many other affections besides the one now known as scabies or itch. This itch dyscrasia he called Psora, meaning thereby the internal itch disease, with or without any present skin symptoms. It is the source of all varieties of skin diseases, abnormal In growths, tumors, deformity, mental diseases, etc. short, it is the parent of all chronic diseases, with the exception of venereal diseases. It is the oldest, most universal and obstinate of all miasmatic diseases. The leprosy of the Israelites, the epidemic St. Anthony's fire of the middle ages, were but forms of this taint. In these forms the whole malignity seemed to be expended on the skin. Greater cleanliness and generally better modes of living have modified its local manifestations,

more in herpetic and that we meet with it. The readi-

so that, at the present day,

it is

eczematous diseases ness with which these are suppressed, the readiness with which ordinary practice dries up discharges of all kinds, the immense development of local treatment,

and the increase dency

is

of all

kinds of specialists, whose ten-

to suppress local manifestations of disease,

has

driven this psora within to more vital regions, and thus

has lead to the great increase afflict

mankind.

of chronic

maladies that

A COMPEND

78

OF THE

The appearance of skin symptoms, or discharge from mucous surface, shows that nature is making an effort to localize on the outskirts of the body the morbid process, removed as far as possible from the more vital parts of the organism, where it would be much more mischievous. Therefore, forcing it back into the interior by strong, local treatment must necessarily work detrimentally to a radical and permanent cure. a

"

Every external treatment of a local symptom whose is to extinguish it on the surface of the body without curing the internal miasmatic disease such, for example, as that of destroying a psoric eruption on the skin by means of ointments, healing up a chancre by

aim

—

destroying

the use of caustic, sycosis

iron

—

by

is

the

granulations of

ligature, excision or the application of a hot

This perni-

not only useless, but injurious.

cious method, in such general use at the present day, is

the chief source of the innumerable chronic diseases human race. This is the most crimi-

that oppress the

nal practice physicians can adopt, and standing, been very generally practiced time,

and taught,

it

has, notwith-

till

the present

ex cathedra, as the only one.

§ 203,

Organon.

The Underlying Facts of the Psoric Theory. Without the necessity of accepting the Psoric doctrine as a whole, the homoeopathic school has found in it an excellent working hypothesis, and certain facts are undeniable

and go

doctrine. 1.

In

far to establish the essential truth of the

These are the following:

many

and regular clinical from some course or other within

patients, the even

course of diseases themselves interfered with. is

Remedies apparently indicated and chosen according to the law of similars, fail to accomplish what, 2.

as a rule, they ought.

Principles of Homceopathy. especially true of

most chronic

diseases.

3.

This

4.

It is a further fact that frequently the suppres-

is

sion or disappearance of a skin disease serious mischief in

more

affections (asthma), after

is

followed by

vital organs, as respiratory

eczema

capitis, etc.,

a reciprocal relation between the skin

showing

and internal

organs. It is the presence of this

unseen but nevertheless very

and perturbing factor that accounts for these conditions. Now, this fact of recognition is the mark of The theory of its precise nature is of compagenius. ratively little importance and may or may not be true. That it is nothing but suppressed itch in the narrow active

sense

is

not true.

That, however, suppressed skin affec-

what we now-a-days understand by itch are an indubitable factor in the production of many forms of obstinate and occult chronic suffering far removed from local skin manifestation, is

tions in a wider acceptation than

an established of

Psora

is

truth.

The Hahnemannian conception

a very real thing, the Psora theory an in-

tensely practical thing

and that

general practitioner whose aim

is its

is to

passport to the

cure permanently

and relieve for the time being. would have been better not to try and define the inner essence of this dyscrasia. The celebrated Botanist Schleiden, used to open his lectures on Botany by frankly confessing that he did not know what a plant was. So we may not know what Psora is, ex-

rather than palliate

Perhaps

it

cept that

it

consists of the

sum

of all the biological

complicate and alter the natural course of diseases and interfere with the action

obstacles

which

resist, deface,

apparently well selected homoeopathic remedy. In this wider sense, as indicating cachexia or dyscrasia, the Psora theory is founded in nature and truth. of the

Though Hahnemann's theory

is

not proven,

it is

a most

admirable working theory, a stepping stone by means

A COMPEND

80

OF THE

which we attain remarkable

of

results in the treatment

of disease.

Anti-psoric remedies are such as show in their pathogenesis a tendency to act from within outwards,

from above downwards, who thus abound in skin symptoms and are deep and long-acting remedies; hence, they are of special value in the treatment of chronic disease and for the eradication of inherited

and constitutional

They show their power in highly attenuated form

disease tendencies.

greatest medicinal

and do not bear frequent

Many of them and require the homoeopathy to develop

repetition.

are wholly inert in their crude state

pharmaceutical processes of their latent medicinal force.

The principal anti-psoric remedies are Sulphur, CalLycopodium, Sepia, Silica, Natrum mur., Gra-

carea,

phites, Arsenic,

Alumina,

etc.

Hahnemann's Suggestion

*

in Regard to Adminis-

tering Anti-psoric remedies. '^

The

following

is

Hahnemann's

"

The

list of

best

time for

anti-psoric remedies,

but there are quite a number of others that ought to be included, which have been proved and introduced since his time: Agaricus,

Colocynthis,

Alumina,

Cuprum,

Natrum carb., Natrum mur..

carb.,

Digitalis,

Nitric acid.

mur.,

Dulcamara, Euphorbium,

Petroleum,

Ammon. Ammon.

Anacardium, Antimon. crud..

Graphites,

Phosphorus, Phosphoric acid,

Guaiacum, lodum.

Platina,

Aurum, Baryta carb.,

Kali carb.,

Sepia,

Arsenic,

Sarsaparilla,

Borax,

Kali nitricum,

Silica,

Calcarea carb.,

Lycopodium, Magnesia carb.,

Stannum,

Carbo animalis, Carbo vegetabilis, Causticum, Clematis,

Manganum,

Sulphur, Sulphuric acid,

Mezereum,

Zincum.

Muriatic acid,

—

Principles OF Homceopathy.

81

taking a dose of an anti-psoric medicine is early in the fasting; no food or drink should be

morning while

taken within half an hour after. After taking the medicine, the patient should keep perfectly quiet at least a full hour, but without going to sleep, avoiding mental exertion of any kind as well. '^ To females, anti-psoric remedies should not be given immediately before or during menstruation, not until four days after the flow has commenced." Pregnancy offers a most favorable time for the administration of anti-psoric remedies, the organism being then in a specially receptive state for the eradica-

and inherited disease tendencies. During treatment of a chronic disease, do not

tion of chronic

fere too readily

with the acute sufferings that

during the treatment.

inter-

may

arise

Often such acute symptoms are

and hence

really a part of the curative action

it

would

be unwise to interfere with their development.

Other Miasms Recognized by Halinemann. In the Hahnemannian pathology miasms,

of chronic diseases,

besides psora, two other

and extent

of syphilis as a cause of a distinct

does not differ as conceived by

accepted by

is

miasm

Hahnemann from

modern pathology, but

distinctive importance peculiar to

Sycosis

syphilis and The importance

i. e.

sycosis figure as etiological factors.

that

assumes a homoeopathy. sycosis

the suppression of the gonorrhoeal poison

Its main local manifestation is the production of figwarts around the genital region, but

in the system.

its

later constitutional

any part

of the.

symptoms

are not confined to

organism but are a general deviation

of health.

Hahnemann distinguishes two kinds of gonorrhoea one comparatively innocent a urethral, catarrhal inflammation, and the other the sycotic form. In regard

—

6

:

A COMPEND

82

OF THE

more common and comparatively innocent form, he says in his "Chronic Diseases": "The miasm of the other common gonorrhoeas seems not to penetrate the whole organism, but only to locally stimulate the urinary organs. They yield either to a dose of one drop to the

of fresh parsley-juice,

when

this is indicated

quent urgency to urinate, or a small dose

of

by a freCannabis

or Cantharis, or of Copaiva, according to their different constitution and the other ailments attending it. These should, however, be always used in the higher

and highest dynamizations, unless a psora, slumbering the body of the patient, has been developed by means of a strongly-affecting, irritating or weakening, in

In such a case, frequently, secondary gonorrhoeas remain, which can only be cured by anti-psoric treatment."

old-school treatment.

The sycotic form of gonorrhoea differs in being a much more serious matter. Hahnemann describes it as follows: "The discharge is from the beginning thickish, like pus; micturition

body

of the penis swollen

some

also, in

lar tubercles,

The

is

less difficult,

but the

somewhat hard; the penis

cases, covered

is

on the back with glandu-

and very painful

to the touch."

characteristic features of sycosis are the wart-

like, cauliflower

excresences around the genitals,

spongy, bleeding easily, recurring

moved, frequently emitting a

when

soft,

violently re-

specific, fetid fluid.

All heroic, external treatment

is forbidden, tending produce the sycotic diathesis; only the external use of Thuja is permitted. For internal treatment. Thuja

to

is

the great anti-sycotic.

The charge

violent suppression of a sycotic, urethral disis

among which observed

by chronic suffering, which is by peculiar symptoms and conditions,

often followed

characterized

the

following

have

frequently

been

Principles of Homceopathy.

83

Symptoms of Suppressed debility- is the

Sycosis. Great muscular most characteristic physical sign anx;

anguish; fear of associating with strangers; going into a crowd; great irritability; dysmenorrhcea, before, during and after flow, with great debility; sterility; inflammation of the Fallopian tubes, ovaries; neurastheiety;

asthma;

nia;

bronchial

affections;

distorted finger

palms of the hands; dryness of rheumatism setting in shortly after the

nails, eruption in the

the hair,

etc.;

suppression of the discharge or remova^l of the warts;

ankle and knee are specially affected; pains worse before a storm and during the day. Eradicative Possibilities of Anti-psoric Treatment. greatest evil of these miasms, is that they are

The

made is

organic and rendered permanent by heredity. It

this fact of heredity

and the pollution

fluids * entailed thereby that modifies

of the vital

not only the

makes a permanent field for chronic diseases. This hereditary gift and this organized field give rise to certain bodily Acute constitutions and certain dyscrasic conditions. diseases and possibly the action of remedies run their course in the track marked out by these bodily constitutions, which again are largely modified by the latent

course of acute diseases, but establishes and

psoric taint.

Every practitioner later at this fact

of experience

— namely, that

arrives sooner or

in order to get a true

and

practical understanding of diseases, the ground,

the

human

heredity, is

organization

modified more or less

upon which ground

diseases feed,

by and which

the battlefield of the malignant forces of disease from

*

" The vaccinated syphilis of

one

organism

passing into

another, ncay not manifest itself by eruption, or chancre or visible syphilitic taint at all, but may fall upon the nervous life and be a raging and unappeasable lust in afterlife." J. J. Garth Wilkinson.

—

— A

84

COMPEND OF THE

without combining with

the impurities within, the char-

ground must be studied; for, according to its composition, it will certainly modify one way or another the course of diseases that from time to time invade it. The presence of this modifying something this perturbing and yet determining factor this psoric taint, was recognized by Hahnemann. His facts are true; his theory, true or not, is, nevertheless, an admirable working theory, leading to remarkable, successful acter of this

—

results.

Pre-natal Treatment by Means of Anti-psoric RemThis is a peculiar field for Homoeopathy. By

edies.

means

of

the deeply-acting anti-psoric remedies, the

lower strata of perverted itself in

life

where

it first

establishes

and

impurities in the finest fibres

cellular

structures, can be restored.

Medicines chosen wisely and given to the expectant mother, can benefit the coming child. Frequently, with the indicated remedy,

—

anatomical and structural deficiencies as cleft palate, lip, eczema, etc. can be prevented in families where such have appeared, because the taint that gave rise to them in former pregnancies has been neutralized by the timely administration of the homoeopathic

—

hare

anti-psoric remedies.

Suggestions for the Treatment of Chronic Diseases. 1.

Before beginning the treatment of a chronic dis-

ease, it is necessary to inquire carefully

if

the patient

has been infected by venereal disease, and, if so, to institute treatment against such infection; but more frequently it will be found that psora complicates the case. 2.' Ascertain, also, the nature of medical treatment that the patient had received, either from drugs or

mineral baths, tions

which

nal disease.

etc.,

in order to understand the devia-

this treatment

had produced

in the origi-

Principles of Homceopathy. Patient's age,

3.

mode

of living,

diet,

85 occupation,

domestic circumstances, and even his social position, should be considered, in order to see how the cure maybe favored or impeded thereby. Patient's

4.

condition and temperament

mental

should not be overlooked, as it may be necessary to direct or modify his mental state by psychical means. Several interviews

5.

may

be necessary before the

physician will find himself enabled to determine the state of the patient's case as perfectly as possible, to

mark

and

the most conspicuous, characteristic or peculiar

symptoms, which alone

will guide

him

to the first anti-

remedy §§ 206-209, Organon. *

psoric, anti-syphilitic or anti-sycotic

beginning

of the cure.

Partial Diseases and Local Affections. presenting an insufficient

number

for

the

Diseases

symptoms, usually only one or two prominent ones, though comparatively rare, are met with. Here, the first selected remedy will only be partially adopted and will, therefore, excite accessory symptoms, which, however, are not wholly due to the remedy given, but were latent, and the remedy served to arouse them; therefore, the new totality of

symptoms

of

will enable the prescriber to dis-

cover the truly indicated remedy. Organon, §§ 172-184.

The

so-called

among

local

affections

occupy a prominent

The term is applied to diseased conditions appearing upon external parts, and are mostly of recent origin and caused by external injury. Affections of external parts, requiring meplace

chanical

properly belong to surgery alone; as, external impediments are to be rethat prevent the vital force from accomplishing skill,

for instance,

moved

partial diseases.

* See, also,

when

Hahnemann's Golden Kule, page

Diseases," page 125.

93,

and "Chronic

A

8f)

COMPEND OF THE

the cure, as the opening of cavities, either for the removal of cumbersome substances, or to form an outlet to effusions, etc.

§§ 185-6, Organon.

Besides the local affections, requiring surgical

and

mechanical treatment, there are local affections that proceed from an internal morbid state. Such involve the entire state of health of the whole organism, since all its parts are so intimately connected as to form an indivisible whole in feelings and functions; hence, all curative measures should be planned, with reference to the state of the whole system and by means of internal remedies. This is done most effectually by including the record of the exact state of the local disease to every other change that is perceptible in the All these symptoms ought to be state of the patient. united in one perfect image and a remedy chosen according to this true totality. Organon, §§ 190-193.

Objections to Local Application

Simultaneously with

its

of a

Internal Use.

It

Medicine

may seem

as if such a practice were conducive to more rapid improvement, but it is objectionable in local affections dependent on some chronic miasm, on account of the more rapid disappearance of the local phase than of the internal disease. This often leads to the deceptive impression that a perfect cure has been accom-

plished.

The

local application of non-homceopathic

edies renders the case

symptoms should not be

even more

difficult.

remLocal

obliterated by caustics, esby excision, since thereby the symptoms necessary for a choice of a curative remedy are obscured, and, also, the chief evidences of a permanent cure are taken away; for, if the local symptoms disappear after the administration of the homoeopathic remcharotics, or

Principles of Homceopathy. edy,

we have

87

established evidence of the achievement

of a radical cure

general disease.

and

The Local Disease ''

Derivation.

complete recovery from the

of

§§ 196-200, Organon. is

When

Nature's Effort to Relieve by is affected with some

the system

chronic disease which threatens to destroy vital organs and life itself, and which does not yield to the sponta-

neous

efforts of the vital force, this

endeavors to quiet

the inner disease, and to avert the danger by substituting and maintaining a local disease on some exter-

nal part of the body, whither the internal disease transferred

by derivation.

In this way, the local

tion for a time arrests the internal evil, without, ever, being able to cure

it,

or to lessen

it

is

affec-

how-

essentially.

of the old school

have a similar

effect,

in the form of artificial ulcers

upon external

parts;

The fontanels

they soothe internal chronic complaints, but without curing them." Nevertheless, the local malady is never anything more than a part of the general disease, but it is a part which has become excessively developed in one direction by the vital force, and transported to the surface of the body where there is less danger, in order to lessen the internal morbid process. § 201, Organon.

The mental

state

and temperament of the patient

are often of most decisive importance in the homoeo-

pathic selection of a remedy, and should never escape the accurate observation of the physician, as the state of

mind

is

always modified in so-called physical diseases.

Most of Mental Diseases and their Treatment. them are in reality bodily diseases. Certain mental and emotional symptoms are peculiar to every bodily disease; these symptoms develop more or less rapidly, and become predominant over all other symptoms, and are finally transferred, like a local disease, into the

A COMPEND

88

OF THE

invisibly fine organs of the mind, where, ence, they

seem

to obscure the bodily

by their pressymptoms.

In regard to the totality of symptoms of a case of symptoms which prevailed before

this kind, all physical

assumed the mental form are very essential. Comparison between these early symptoms and their present indistinct remnants, which may occasionally appear during lucid intervals or during transient amelioration of the mental disease, will show the continuance of the physical disease, although obscured. Study §§ 214-220, Organon. the disease

Acute insanity, even though due should not be treated with anti-psoric but met with remedies like Aconite, in highly attenuated doses. After anti-psoric

remedies, with well

to latent psora,

remedies at once, Belladonna, etc.,

such treatment,

regulated

diet

and

In the treatment of insanity, the medicines may be given mixed with the patient's usual drink, without his knowledge, thus obviating every kind of compulsion. Study §§ 221-231, Organon, habits, will do the rest.

in this connection.

Intermittent and alternating diseases are such as return at certain periods, or where certain morbid conditions alternate with each other. Such are mostly a

product of developed psora.

The symptoms which mark the condition

of

the

patient during the period of intermission should chiefly

be taken as guides in selecting the most striking homoeopathic remedy.

In intermittents, besides the importance rexia as offering most guiding

symptoms

of the

apy-

for the selec-

which is most prominent and peculiar should next be considered. The best time to administer the remedy is a short time after the termination of the paroxysm, when the patient has partion of the remedy, the stage

Principles of Homceopathy.